After Ryuu's little incident, Shiro and Freya somehow forgot what they had originally been discussing.
The two sat silently at opposite ends of the round table, staring at each other.
For a moment, the atmosphere became strangely awkward.
In the end, it was Mia's appearance that finally broke the silence.
After pulling Ryuu out of the counter, Mia first returned to the kitchen. When she came back, she was carrying a cup, which she casually slapped down on the table in front of Shiro.
Yet the instant the cup touched the tabletop...
Bang!
A sharp, heavy sound erupted from beneath it.
Shiro clearly saw the water inside leap high into the air like an athlete performing a high jump before falling neatly back into the cup.
"Hmph. I hope something from this 'little tavern' is good enough for your refined tastes."
Leaving those words behind, Mia turned around and returned to the kitchen.
Shiro and Freya exchanged awkward looks.
Judging from Mia's behavior, Shiro could more or less understand why she was irritated.
She had clearly been paying attention to their conversation even while working in the kitchen.
But Shiro also realized something else.
Mia's Falna had never been sealed.
Her physical abilities were still those of a Level 6 adventurer.
In other words, although Mia had officially left Freya Familia, some attachment to it clearly remained.
The fact that she had appeared as an enemy during their private War Game was the best proof of that.
Of course, there was another possibility.
This might simply have been Mia's compromise with Freya, allowing her to retain her Falna in exchange for personal freedom.
"Well, Wiene's situation is settled."
Having been caught badmouthing someone within earshot, Shiro awkwardly swirled the cup in his hand before trying to steer the conversation back on track.
"Now let's talk about the real issue."
Freya folded her hands together and rested her chin against the backs of them.
Then her gaze slowly shifted to the empty space beside Shiro.
"Is this about that soul?"
"So you really can see her."
Shiro sounded impressed, though he had already expected as much.
Confirming whether Freya could perceive Alfia was one of the reasons he had brought her along today.
"But no. This has nothing to do with her."
He took a sip.
"It's about Ishtar."
"Ishtar?"
Freya immediately frowned.
"What is she planning this time?"
Freya had always preferred to keep her distance from Ishtar.
Or rather, from every other Goddess of Beauty in Heaven.
In Freya's eyes, there was a fundamental difference between herself and them.
Whether it was Ishtar or Aphrodite, none of them had ever agonized over whether the love offered to them was merely a false product created by the Authority of a Goddess of Beauty.
They had long since become accustomed to viewing themselves as supreme queens.
Favor, devotion, worship...
They accepted everything as their natural right without caring much about anything around them.
Was Freya jealous?
Perhaps.
Did she envy them?
Perhaps that too.
Freya had sometimes imagined what it would be like if she could simply lock herself inside the cage called love, just like those other Goddesses of Beauty, and live her entire existence without ever realizing the truth.
Perhaps she would have been happy.
Even if that happiness was more fragile than glass.
Whatever the reason, whether it was their fundamentally different understanding of love or simply Freya preferring not to look at things that annoyed her, she usually restrained herself from interacting too much with other Goddesses of Beauty.
Yet Freya had no idea what madness possessed Ishtar.
Ever since Freya descended and established her Familia, Ishtar had constantly found excuses to bother her.
How much money she had made recently.
What promising new child had joined her Familia.
What new success she had achieved.
Freya had heard so much of it at Denatus meetings that she was practically developing calluses in her ears.
And the more Freya ignored her, the more brazen Ishtar became.
Especially over the past few years.
Several gods had even started private betting pools over when the two Goddesses of Beauty would finally fight.
Some of those bets were calculated by the day.
That alone showed how openly hostile Ishtar had become.
"You know..."
After hearing the history between Freya and Ishtar, Shiro's expression became rather strange.
"Have you ever considered one possibility?"
"Just a possibility. I'm not saying it's definitely true."
Freya looked at him.
"What?"
"You're both Goddesses of Beauty."
Shiro gestured toward her.
"But you're the only one who keeps ignoring her."
"So maybe she thinks you look down on her."
"And since you've also been doing better than her in Orario, maybe that's why she can't stand you and spends every day thinking about how to drag you down from where you are."
Freya stared at him.
"...Surely not."
Her expression showed genuine surprise.
"Can a god really be that bored?"
Hadn't everyone descended to the Lower World to have fun?
Surely no god would dedicate all their energy to revenge over something so petty.
Shiro said nothing.
He simply stared silently at Freya's face.
If they were discussing bored gods, there were not many more qualified than Freya herself.
Simply because someone might interfere with a promising soul she had taken an interest in, she would go out of her way to obstruct them, manipulate events, and even personally involve herself.
"The child is special."
Noticing Shiro's stare, Freya lowered her head and quietly defended herself.
"Among all the souls I've seen in the Lower World, his is the purest and most dazzling white."
"But being special doesn't mean he's the partner you've been searching for."
Shiro's voice became more serious.
"Even the most virtuous hero in a story isn't necessarily compatible with everyone."
"What you're doing is simply choosing the most 'beautiful' soul among countless others and deciding that only something that beautiful could possibly be worthy of you."
He looked directly at her.
"Don't you find that strange at all?"
Freya constantly claimed that she had been enslaved by love.
She believed the love offered to her was empty because it had been produced by the Authority of a Goddess of Beauty.
Yet she seemed to have forgotten why those people had offered her their love in the first place.
The answer was beauty.
Freya might not have consciously used charm on them.
Even so, every one of them had offered their affection because they were captivated by her beauty.
And now their roles had merely reversed.
Freya wanted to find a partner.
Yet she had never even met the person she had chosen.
They had never spoken.
They had spent no time together.
She had merely seen the color of his soul and immediately decided that he must be the partner Idun had once told her about.
How was that any different from Freya herself surrendering to beauty?
"You don't even know him."
Shiro continued quietly.
"And yet you're already constantly clearing the road ahead for him."
"Isn't that exactly what those gods charmed by you did?"
"If you believe the love they offered you was empty, then the love you're offering in your search for a partner is equally empty."
Shiro leaned back slightly.
"In the end, Freya..."
"You still haven't escaped the yoke of the Goddess of Beauty."
…