But.
At that same moment.
Inside the clothing boutique.
Haimer stood where he was, his gaze sweeping across the scene of utter devastation on the floor before finally settling on Syr, who stood quietly to one side.
Helen's disguise magic was, he had to admit, impressively crafted.
The flow of magical energy was seamless — it wrapped around her face, her figure, even the aura she naturally emanated, and packaged it all into the convincing appearance of an ordinary human girl.
It was more than enough to fool the eyes of the vast majority of adventurers in the Lower World.
But.
Hestia, as a goddess of virginity, possessed an instinctive, bone-deep sensitivity to the presence of Freya, the Goddess of Beauty. An innate resistance, honed by divine nature itself.
The thought of Hestia stumbling upon this scene right now — coming close enough to sense it — was the kind of thing that could tear straight through this particular paper screen.
One of the great pleasures of descending to the Lower World, after all, was playing a role.
Since Freya clearly enjoyed this sort of identity-hiding game of hide-and-seek, Haimer was perfectly happy to play along.
Pulling back the curtain ahead of time would only make what came next considerably less interesting.
And so.
In the brief moment those thoughts passed through his mind, Haimer had already made his decision.
"Tsukuyo — take them shopping first. Get some changes of clothes and daily necessities for the Holy Emperor and Kisara and the others.
"I still have a few things to sort out on my end.
"I'll head back to base a little later.
"Go enjoy yourselves — have a good time out there. No need to stand guard over me."
At that same moment.
Behind the wooden fruit-crate across the street from 『Velvet Iris』.
Inaba Tsukuyo, who had been standing with her eyes closed, listening carefully, heard every word.
A faint flush of pink crept across her pale cheeks.
So they had been found out after all.
Still.
Inaba Tsukuyo understood perfectly well that these words had been spoken by the god specifically for her ears.
That private message, delivered to her alone — Inaba Tsukuyo lowered her head slightly, and gave a single, very earnest nod to the empty air.
Then she turned.
She turned to face Hestia, who was currently being held in place by Onigawara Rin and Kikakujou Mary — one on each arm — her cheeks puffed out and her entire face a study in sulky displeasure.
"Hestia-sama."
Inaba Tsukuyo spoke, her voice gentle.
"Kami-sama just passed along a message."
"Hm?"
Hestia blinked, and stopped struggling.
"Kami-sama asked that we not wait here. We're to go shopping for clothes for the Holy Emperor and the others first. He said he still has something to finish up on his end and will be returning to base later than planned — we should go ahead and enjoy ourselves."
Inaba Tsukuyo relayed it faithfully, word for word.
Upon hearing this.
The faintly irritated expression on Hestia's round face froze completely solid.
"That — that means —"
"Haimer knew we were hiding here this whole time?!"
Hestia's voice shot up an entire octave, and a brilliant blush blazed across her face at once.
"Well, obviously," said Amou Kirukiru from nearby, stretching her arms above her head with a lazy yawn.
"At that range, even I could feel several pairs of eyes locked onto that spot the whole time. To say nothing of Kami-sama."
Upon hearing that blunt, completely merciless addendum.
Hestia buried her face in both hands and sank into a mortified crouch.
"Aaaaaah!"
"And I actually thought my tailing skills had improved!"
Onigawara Rin quickly released her grip and crouched down beside her, doing her best to console the thoroughly devastated goddess.
"Well, since Kami-sama has already given his instructions," said Kikakujou Mary, smoothing out a few stray wisps of golden hair.
"Let's go and take care of actual business. The Holy Emperor and Kisara and the others still need proper changes of clothes."
Hestia still felt a sour little pang in her chest at the idea of other girls clustering around Haimer — a low, smouldering discontent she couldn't quite shake, mixed with a mounting worry that the Familia and its base of operations might end up with more and more girls around as time went on.
But.
Since Haimer had now given clear and explicit instructions, she couldn't very well keep making a scene here and shamelessy digging in her heels.
"Fine, fine!"
"If Haimer says so."
"Let's go! Shopping time! I'm going to buy the most expensive, most delicious fried potato balls I can find to soothe my wounded heart!"
With that declared, Hestia got back to her feet, planted both hands on her hips, and marched off in the direction of the next shopping street over — leading the charge.
Onigawara Rin and the others could only follow along with helpless expressions of their own.
And so.
Back inside 『Velvet Iris』.
Haimer had finished settling all the remaining details with the shop assistant, who was still tallying up the bill.
He turned.
His gaze moved to Ryu, still standing where she'd been, visibly ill at ease — and to Helen beside her, doing a creditable impression of someone timid and flustered.
"Shall we go, Miss Elf."
Haimer started toward the door.
"We made arrangements to have a proper conversation — standing around in this disaster zone of a shop isn't going to cut it."
Ryu came back to herself at once and hurried after him.
"I'm so terribly sorry, Kami-sama — we've caused you so much trouble."
"Syr — come along."
Ryu reached out and caught Helen's wrist.
Helen dipped her head in an obedient gesture and followed the two of them out of the clothing shop.
As for.
Chloe, Lunor, and Anya exchanged a round of glances.
Acting on their shared philosophy of 'nothing to lose, might as well,' and driven by an overpowering curiosity about whatever Kami-sama and Ryu were about to discuss, the three troublemakers slunk after them in single file — keeping a careful dozen-odd steps back.
The afternoon sun fell across the stone-paved road of the western boulevard.
People moved back and forth through the crowd. Vendors' calls and the rumble of cart wheels wove together into the ordinary noise of the street.
Haimer walked on the outer side of the road.
Ryu and Helen walked on the inner side.
Ryu was still wearing the pure-white short dress that had, not long ago, been the proximate cause of a small-scale bloodbath.
She moved with stiff, uncomfortable steps, her hands clasped tightly in front of her, tugging at the hem every few seconds as if hoping she could make it longer by sheer force of will.
The blush that had started inside the shop had never fully faded from her face.
And then there were the three figures behind her, making absolutely no effort whatsoever to disguise the fact that they were following.
The combined effect pushed Ryu's discomfort very nearly to its limit. She quickened her pace to come up half a step closer to Haimer's side, her voice carrying an unmistakable undercurrent of apology.
"Kami-sama…"
"I am truly sorry about those three behind us — they insisted on coming along."
"I'll go send them back to the tavern right now."
She was already turning, ready to march back and deal with the trio of spectators.
"It's fine."
Haimer raised a hand slightly, stopping her.
"It's a public road. Their feet belong to them — where they go is their business."
"Besides."
Haimer tilted his head toward her, the dark depths of his eyes holding a quiet, easy smile as he looked at Ryu's flushed profile.
"Does Miss Elf really think so poorly of me — or consider me such a terrifying and dangerous individual that I need to be guarded against at all times?"
The moment those words landed.
Ryu went rigid.
The blush that had been lingering on her cheeks ignited all at once, blazing clean up to the tips of her ears.
"No! Absolutely not!"
Ryu shook her hands in frantic denial, her sky-blue eyes wide with agitation, her words spilling out at twice their usual speed.
"I — I — I… at the very beginning I did, because of a misunderstanding, think that you might be a dangerous presence plotting something against Orario…"
"But — after these past few days of actually being around you, I've completely — utterly — abandoned that absurd idea!"
"You're not only magnanimous and broad-minded, you carry genuine goodwill toward the people of the Lower World, even those you've never met before!"
"So as far as I'm concerned, you are absolutely not a frightening person! You are a god who deserves every bit of respect!"
In her urgent rush to explain herself, the flustered elf girl tumbled headlong through her own words — and in the process, laid bare every honest thought she'd ever had about him, including the ones from the very beginning.
And so.
When she finally fell silent.
She realised she had just confessed, to the god's face, that she had once considered him a threat — and then, in the same breathless ramble, poured out every genuine impression she'd formed of him since.
The words were already out before she caught herself.
Ryu stopped dead, mouth snapping shut.
It wasn't just her cheeks now — even the elegant pointed tips of her elf ears had gone red enough to bleed.
Her hands clenched hard around the poor white skirt. Her head dropped so low it looked like she was ready to offer her neck in penance right there on the street.
Haimer listened to Ryu's earnest, almost endearingly foolish confession all the way to the end.
A smile tugged at one corner of his mouth. He shook his head lightly.
This elf, he thought — rigid to a fault, but somehow all the more charming for it.
As for Helen, walking alongside Ryu, those blue-grey eyes flickered quietly.
She maintained the role — Syr's gentle, startled demeanour — walking peacefully beside them, not saying a word.
But.
Helen's attention was riveted, without wavering, on Haimer walking at her side.
As Freya's most trusted handmaid — the one person capable of perfectly sharing in her mistress's senses — Helen understood, better than anyone alive, just what kind of singular, extraordinary fixation her goddess had developed toward the man now walking beside her.
And so.
Even here, beneath this disguise.
Helen could not suppress the curiosity burning low inside her.
What exactly was it about this newly-descended god that had stirred something so intense in Freya? What had sparked that reaction — so fierce, so out of character?
Enough, even, for Freya to step back and send Helen here in Syr's place rather than come herself.
That had never happened before. Not once.
As though sensing the eyes on his back.
Haimer kept walking, but tilted his head fractionally — and his gaze met Helen's directly.
Helen saw it at once, and dropped her eyes immediately, composing her expression into something flushed and timid.
A perfectly executed piece of acting.
Worthy, entirely, of a handmaid trained by Freya herself.
Haimer looked away without comment.
And as they continued on toward the café.
Ryu drew a deep breath at last, and spoke — saying the thing she had come here most urgently to say.
"Kami-sama…"
"About the matter of following you in secret before…"
"That was because, at the tavern, I mistakenly believed that your arrival was what had caused Syr to behave strangely.
"It led me to conclude that you were a dangerous god with malicious intentions toward her, or some scheme you were working against her.
"I will not allow anyone to harm Syr.
"So rather than bring trouble back to the tavern, I took matters into my own hands — waited in the alley, and intended to deal with the threat alone."
"All of it was based on my own presumptuous judgement.
"The fact that I drew my blade on you is something I cannot argue away.
"I don't ask for your forgiveness, Kami-sama.
"I only hope you will know that it was never my intention to act against you."
With that said.
Ryu stopped walking and bowed deeply toward Haimer — a full, earnest bow from the waist.
Haimer watched her bow. He listened through the entire account, calm and unhurried.
He didn't respond immediately.
A few seconds passed.
Then he spoke, with unmistakable approval in his voice.
"In that case."
"Miss Elf has nothing whatsoever to apologise for.
"After all — to shadow a god of unknown character alone, for the sake of a possible threat, takes real nerve.
"Reckless, yes — but reckless is always closer to brave than cowardice is. There aren't many people in this world who would go as far as Miss Elf went for a friend's sake."
"So I recognise that courage. Fully."
"Wow, this god's practically talked Ryu's face into the colour of a baboon's backside," Anya remarked from further back, completely out of nowhere.
Lunor answered by bringing her iron fist down squarely on Anya's head.
As for Ryu — upon hearing Haimer's praise, a flush rose to her cheeks again. She straightened carefully, and murmured a small, flustered correction.
"Syr is more than a friend to me.
"She is the most important person in my world — the one I want most to protect."
"So, as long as it is for her sake — even if you asked me to challenge a god again, I would."
Helen, standing nearby, heard those words, and something complicated moved through the depths of her eyes.
Haimer, for his part, let one corner of his mouth curve upward in a meaningful arc, his gaze drifting between Ryu and Helen in a slow, deliberate sweep.
"Is that so."
"To hold someone's safety above your own."
He drew the words out, letting a very particular note of teasing seep into his voice.
"If Miss Elf puts it like that — the feeling is, one might say, extraordinarily intense.
"I wonder — might there be a bond between Miss Elf and Miss Syr that runs a good deal deeper than friendship?"
"!!!"
The moment that offhand remark landed — that harmless little joke dropped right into the middle of the conversation.
Helen, startled out of her composure, stared at Haimer with wide eyes.
And Ryu, whose colour had never quite returned to normal — combusted.
"No! No! No! No, no!"
"It is not what you're thinking!"
"K-Kami-sama! Please — please don't make that kind of joke!"
A pure-hearted elf facing that level of blunt teasing was utterly, completely defenceless. Both hands flew up and shook frantically in front of her, her breathing coming out entirely wrong.
Watching Ryu's composure collapse so completely and thoroughly.
Haimer allowed himself a small smile, and stopped there — knowing when he'd had his fun, and having no particular desire to keep tormenting this hopelessly earnest elf.
Whatever else could be said.
The misunderstanding between them was now, without question, completely resolved.
Though — in the mind of the rigidly principled Ryu — the original plan had not disappeared simply because the misunderstanding had been cleared up.
After all, even with the misunderstanding explained, she had promised to treat Haimer to coffee.
She was an elf. She did not break her word.
Faced with Ryu's unyielding stubbornness on this point.
Haimer accepted with good grace.
And so.
The little group pushed open the door of Vishen Café.
The bell above the door chimed.
A deep, rich fragrance enveloped them at once.
____
👻🔥Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Samsara Game: Starting in The Long Dark with My Waifus
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 Bonus Chapter for everyone