In those timid chestnut eyes — always so quick to retreat — a faint but unmistakable spark had finally kindled, burning quietly in the stillness of the deep night.
Haimer looked at her for a long moment, then said nothing more.
Many times, the force it takes to push someone off a cliff and the force it takes to pull them back from the edge are exactly the same.
"Go to sleep. Up early tomorrow."
He tossed the words out as an afterthought and turned, walking away toward the corridor at the far end of the ground floor.
Lilli's situation was settled, at least for now.
The night had deepened, and the noise that had filled the manor earlier had long since quieted. Lei and the other heretics had probably been sorted out by Mary and Lunor — bathed and put away — and were no doubt sunk into the beds on the third floor that must have felt, to them, as impossibly soft as something out of a dream.
Come to think of it, today had been extremely full.
The Dungeon. Ouranos. The heretics. Even for a god, this body with its sealed divine power grew weary.
His thoughts drifted there and stilled.
Some time passed.
*
Deep on the ground floor, in the large bathroom.
Steam hung thickly in the air.
The room had originally been designed for the women of the household to bathe together — an oversized stone pool built to accommodate exactly that — and now, at last, it held only Haimer.
Lei and the others must have finished earlier; the air still carried the faint, lingering fragrance of body wash and soap, mingled together.
Haimer lay soaking in the wide pool, his back resting against the warm, smooth edge of the stone, the hot spring water covering him to the chest.
He closed his eyes and let out a long, slow breath.
His mind turned to what came next.
The pace was moving a little fast, if he was being honest.
This three-story mansion in the high-end residential district — he'd assumed they'd have it to themselves for a decent stretch of time. And yet here they were, only a few days in, and it was already looking like the place was going to overflow.
Once the cursed children from the G-404 world were brought over in numbers, plus the heretics still waiting in the depths of the Dungeon — there wouldn't be enough floor space to sleep on, let alone enough rooms.
"I'll have to go push Ganesha's people tomorrow."
The outer-ring fortress Ganesha had promised — the Guild had said they were taking full charge of it. With the efficiency of Orario's architecture-type Familia members, once construction actually started, they could probably have the bones of it up within a matter of days.
Still.
He ought to go check on the progress himself tomorrow.
Thinking it over, Haimer simply closed his eyes and let himself rest quietly amid the sound of the water.
*
He had no idea how much time had passed.
A very faint sound came from the changing area outside the bathroom.
Like bare feet pressing down against a non-slip mat.
Haimer didn't open his eyes. He only moved his ears, the slightest degree.
Then those faint footsteps rounded the partition screen and slowly drew closer to the edge of the pool. A moment later, Haimer felt a gentle pressure against his back.
Not the friction of a human hand.
It was something with a faint warmth — feathers, extraordinarily soft — that had grown damp with water and was now pressed against his shoulder blades, wiping carefully, little by little. The movements were clumsy, but carried in them an exceptional earnestness.
Haimer said nothing to interrupt.
He simply let those wings trace their quiet path across his back.
The feathers, soaked through by the hot water and pressed flat against his skin, produced a peculiar sensation — a faint, trailing itch.
They washed like that for a while.
Then from behind him came a voice — clear and slight, like something afraid of shattering the steam that filled the room.
"Kami-sama…"
— Lei.
[Adventurer Status — [Labyrinth Golden Wing] Lei ★★★★★★ / Magic Attack Type / Hero Sublimation / Proficiency +60/60 / Next: 0 / Limit Break +1530 / Strength: R 119 (+0) / MP: 219 / Endurance: E 127 (+0) / Physical Attack: 119 / Dexterity: A 264 (+0) / 648 / Magic Attack / Agility: A 436 (+124) / Defense: 127 / Magic: S 648 (+185)]
Perhaps it was the heat of the bathroom, or perhaps something else entirely, but her voice came out with a slight tremor.
"Mm."
Haimer answered without turning.
"Why aren't you asleep yet?"
"I…"
The motion of Lei's wings paused. Her wide golden wings drew slightly inward.
"I was passing through the corridor just now, and I saw the light still on in here… so I thought, perhaps I could come and help wash your back."
As she said it, her voice grew smaller and smaller — exactly like a child who had done something wrong and was bracing to be scolded.
"Though… I have no hands. I can only make do with my wings. And my technique is very clumsy."
"You're doing well. Keep going."
Haimer gave a resigned sigh, shifted his back slightly, and settled into a more comfortable position.
Hearing that word of approval, Lei seemed to release a great breath of relief. Her wings pressed back against Haimer's back, moving with a little more freedom than before.
"Kami-sama, I am truly, deeply grateful to you."
Lei's voice carried a gratitude she couldn't quite conceal — the kind that belongs to someone who has spent their entire life in the dark and has been pulled, suddenly, into the sunlight.
"And not only you — just now, Mary and Lunor came to take our measurements."
As she mentioned it, a note of wonder crept into her voice.
"Mary said she learned some of this before, and that she wanted to make proper clothes for me and Fei and the others."
"After all, with wings like ours, ordinary clothing simply doesn't fit."
"They didn't recoil from the monster scent on us. They came right up close instead, and measured us carefully, bit by bit."
For heretics who had spent years hiding in the shadowed corners of the Dungeon, running from adventurers who hunted them — this kind of pure, uncalculating kindness from human girls felt so unreal it was almost like a dream.
"Mary is a young lady who received a proper elite education. Knowing a little tailoring is hardly unusual."
Haimer cupped a handful of water and watched it run between his fingers.
"And I said long ago — there are no complicated rules and hierarchies in my Familia. Now that we're family, no one gets to look down on anyone else. Looking out for one another is simply what family does."
"Besides, in a few more days, once the next group of children arrives, you'll be meeting even more new faces."
"Their situation is a little particular. When the time comes, I'll be counting on all of you to look after them."
Behind him, Lei nodded firmly.
"Mm. Fei and the others are looking forward to it, too."
For a stretch of time after that, the bathroom held nothing but the quiet sound of water and the loose, unhurried exchange of two people with no particular agenda. Lei expressed, in her own way, the feeling of a debt she had no means to repay.
When the washing was done.
Haimer pressed his hands against the edge of the pool and rose from the warm water.
As he moved, droplets slid from his broad, solid shoulders, tracing down the lines of his muscles, disappearing into the towel wrapped at his waist.
Lei had been quietly tidying the wooden basin beside the pool, her head bowed.
On instinct, she glanced up — and caught the sight.
The face that had already been flushed from the heat instantly deepened to a far richer shade of red. Even the small tuft of golden feathers at the crown of her head stood straight up, like a startled quail.
"Ah…"
Lei snapped her gaze away in a panic, shrinking backward, her golden wings crossing over her chest in an instinctive, unnatural shield.
"I-I'm so sorry! Kami-sama!"
She bit her lower lip, her voice threaded with obvious alarm — and the kind of self-loathing that had been engraved into her bones over a lifetime.
"I… I am only a filthy heretic monster. I had no right to look at your body. I overstepped — I overstepped terribly!"
Watching Lei look as though she wished she could dissolve into the gaps between the floorboards — all but searching for a hole in the ground to crawl into — Haimer reached over, picked up a dry towel from the rack, and ran it through his half-wet hair.
"There's nothing filthy about any of this."
"You are my Familia now. In this house, you are not a monster. You are my child."
"I'm not missing any flesh over it. Stand up straight from now on, and stop putting yourself down at every turn."
Haimer draped the towel over one shoulder and turned his head to look at her.
"And remember this, Lei: you are beautiful. Even if you were to walk down the streets of Orario, you would not be one step behind any elf."
Hearing Haimer say it so plainly.
Lei's heart pounded like a drum inside her chest. Her cheeks burned hot enough to fry an egg. She couldn't find a single word to respond with.
"All right. Go rest early. I still need to take Lilli out tomorrow."
"You too, Lei. Get some sleep."
Haimer turned, stepped across the non-slip mat, and walked out of the bathroom.
He left Lei standing alone beside the steaming pool, listening to the sound of footsteps fading into the distance, the glimmer in her eyes flickering and flickering.
Back on the second floor.
The corridor was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop.
Haimer walked to the door of the master bedroom and rested his hand on the handle.
His mind had already started turning over the question of how he was going to manage Amou Kirukiru tonight.
She always made such a commotion that Tsukuyo could hear every bit of it, clear as day.
If Kirukiru launched another midnight raid tonight, he was going to need to think up a plan in advance.
"Click."
The door swung open.
By the faint light filtering in from the corridor.
Haimer stopped mid-step. There, in the middle of his wide bed, something was making a very obvious little mound in the blankets.
The shape of it bore absolutely no resemblance to Amou Kirukiru's tall, well-proportioned figure.
"…"
Haimer's eye twitched. He turned, pulled the door shut behind him, and padded quietly to the side of the bed.
From beneath the blanket came the sound of breathing — faint, steady, and rhythmic.
By the look of things, some uninvited guest had waited so long they couldn't hold out any longer and had fallen asleep on their own.
Did he even need to guess?
In this entire manor, who else would have the sheer audacity to sneak over and seize his bed so brazenly? Who else could it be but Hestia?
Haimer considered it for a moment, and decided against simply waking Hestia up like a reasonable person.
Instead, he sat down at the edge of the bed.
And then, following the line of the blanket, he slipped one hand quietly beneath it.
He reached inward.
Before long, buried inside a pile of soft fabric, his fingers found a small, pale, warm little foot, curled up and enjoying the heat of the covers.
Soft and warm against his palm.
And then.
Haimer curled his fingers, and without the slightest mercy, scratched lightly back and forth across the tender arch of that little foot.
"Uuugh——!"
From inside the quiet blanket, a squeal shot out at a completely wrong pitch!
And then immediately after.
"Hahaha! It tickles! It tickles so much! Let go, Haimer!!"
Hestia erupted like a small cat whose tail had been stepped on, thrashing madly inside the blankets.
The thick, cloud-cotton comforter took one kick too many and flew off the bed entirely, landing on the floor with a thump.
And with it, Hestia herself — struggling far too hard — tumbled over the edge of the bed and landed squarely on her bottom on the wooden floor.
That single impact.
Exposed Hestia fully — in her loose white nightgown, laughing so hard tears were practically flying from her eyes.
That signature pair of black twin-tails had been tossed into complete disarray by all the rolling. The collar of her nightgown had slipped open from the violence of her struggling, and that already-remarkable silhouette rose and fell dramatically with every heaving breath, producing a vista that could only be described as extravagant beyond measure.
"Uwaaah!!"
"You, Haimer!!"
Hestia rubbed her sore bottom, tears still clinging to the corners of her eyes, panting hard, glaring with all her might at Haimer sitting at the edge of the bed through those big, watery blue eyes of hers.
"Is that any way to treat a goddess?! I nearly frightened myself to death!"
"I should be asking you."
Haimer settled comfortably against the headboard and looked down at Hestia on the floor.
"What are you doing sneaking into my bed in the middle of the night?"
"I…"
That question pulled Hestia up short, and a flush swept across her cheeks.
But she recovered quickly. Both hands went to the floor, she pushed herself to her feet, and with her neck held high in a posture of perfect righteousness, she shot back:
"What do you mean, 'sneaking'! I came to — I came to check whether you had any disreputable women hidden in your room!"
As she said it, she even made a show of sniffing the air, as if she genuinely believed she might detect something suspicious in it.
"Especially that one called Amou Kirukiru!"
"This very morning, I saw it with my own eyes — the way she looks at you, and all those marks on her… I knew something was off with her the moment I saw her!"
And with that.
Hestia puffed out her cheeks, crossed both arms hard over her chest — making the already-impressive landscape there even more pronounced — and planted herself in a stance that declared, unmistakably: I am standing guard here and I dare anyone to try getting past me.
Watching her commit so thoroughly to the role of human shield, Haimer couldn't be bothered to argue.
"Fine, sleep wherever you like."
"But fair warning: if you steal the blanket in the middle of the night and I kick you out of bed, don't come crying to me."
And with that.
Haimer pulled a corner of the blanket over his legs.
Hestia, the moment she saw it, wriggled over to his side of the bed like a cat that had caught the smell of meat.
The loli goddess's face was flushed with a visible blush, the pink even showing at her pale neck.
She pressed herself almost entirely against Haimer's arm, nearly flush against it, and through the thin fabric, that extraordinary softness transmitted itself directly to him.
Come to think of it, this was hardly the first time they had shared a bed.
Back in the Heavens, it had happened from time to time.
Back then, Haimer had gone by the name of a wicked god, doing whatever suited his mood — and yet toward the virgin goddess, he had always maintained a certain restraint that could almost be called conscientious. He had been content to serve as a proper, upright bolster.
And yet even so.
The number of times they had been truly alone together, back in the Heavens, could be counted on one hand.
Because every single time the atmosphere between them got even slightly warm, every time Hestia had just gathered her courage to say something that meant something — without fail, some thick-headed fool would blunder in and ruin it.
Particularly the two people who had always been closest to Haimer.
They'd appear with the timing of something pre-arranged, precisely in the moment.
The memory of all those interrupted moments in the Heavens made Hestia's small, white teeth grind together with a distinct gnashing sound.
And then, somehow, they'd finally made it to the Lower World.
And not even a month in — not only was there a whole crowd of girls orbiting around Haimer with predatory intent, but today, half-monster heretics from the Dungeon had moved into the house as well!
Hestia mentally cursed out Amou Kirukiru, Loki, and that bird-person called Fei in turn, then lifted her hand in a huff, intending to pinch Haimer's cheek.
But the moment her hand reached halfway.
She saw that Haimer, leaning against the cushioned headboard, had already settled into slow, even breathing.
Now that she thought about it, Haimer had done an enormous amount in these past few days. Even for a god, this body with its sealed divine power must have been exhausted long since.
At that thought, Hestia's outstretched fingers hovered in the air for a moment, and the grinding expression on her face slowly softened.
She pursed her lips, lowered her hand, and scooted closer against Haimer's side. Both small hands found one of his arms, and she hugged it tight to her chest, pressing her cheek against it, shifting until she found just the right angle.
"Fine, you big idiot. I'll let you off just this once." Hestia murmured quietly, closed her eyes, and drifted, together with him, down into sleep.
At the same time.
That same night, while some slept soundly and sweetly — someone else was about ready to put his fist through the ceiling.
In a basement deep within Daedalus Street.
The torches on the walls flickered in and out, throwing their unsteady light across the wooden table at the center of the room — smashed to splinters.
"You've got to be kidding me!!"
"Some god appears out of nowhere, and he just saunters straight down the street with monsters in tow?!"
— Captain of the Ikelos Familia, Lv. 5.
— "The Savage", Dix Perdix.
Dix swung his foot and sent a nearby chair flying, slamming it into the stone wall with a crash.
The members of the Ikelos Familia standing around him had gone utterly still, not daring to breathe.
If the others descended into the Dungeon for money and glory, Dix did it purely to satisfy his depraved obsession with tormenting heretics — and to run a few side enterprises that didn't hold up well in the light.
"C-Captain…"
A tall, lanky member nearby swallowed, and worked up the nerve to speak.
"Word's going around outside that this god Haimer used some kind of brainwashing technique in the Dungeon, and he's got those monsters completely under his control."
"Brainwashing? Control?"
Dix let out a cold laugh and turned his head, fixing the subordinate with a dead stare from behind his goggles, as if looking at something already dead.
"If the mindless animals in the Dungeon could be controlled, why in the hells would we go through all that trouble hunting the ones with brains?!"
Dix crossed to the wall in a few strides and ripped the whip hanging there from its hook.
"There's only one explanation: the ones he walked out of there with are the exact heretics I've been watching for so long!"
"That's our merchandise! That's my prey!"
"Someone tramps right into my territory, steals my toys, and then has the nerve to waltz them home like it's nothing?"
The angrier Dix got, the more worked up he became, and he cracked the whip in the air — a sharp, ringing snap.
"Crack!"
It split a wooden barrel beside him clean in half, sending splinters spraying across the room.
"Get everyone together! Bring all your gear!"
"Since he had the gall to bring monsters to the surface, we have every right to go to his house and take back what's ours!"
"Killing monsters is the most natural thing in the world — the Guild can't say a word against it!"
The members below exchanged uneasy glances. Most of them felt that launching a direct assault on a god's residence was an enormous risk — but under the crushing weight of Dix's authority, a few of the bolder ones had already begun reaching for the weapons at their hips.
But then.
Just as this band of desperados was genuinely about to go do something monumentally stupid.
From the corner of the room — from the steps leading down to the second underground level — came a long, slow sigh.
"I'd strongly advise you to drop that idiotic idea of yours, Dix."
The speaker was a man dressed in a black tracksuit.
He was slumped on the steps in a thoroughly listless posture, both hands pressed hard against the sides of his skull, looking for all the world like a man in the grip of a splitting headache.
— It was none other than the chief deity of the Ikelos Familia.
— Ikelos.
Of all the places to run into him.
"Ikelos. What is that supposed to mean?"
Dix turned, his whip hanging loose at his side.
"You expect me to just sit here and let someone take a dump on our heads?"
"If it were anyone else, do as you please — as long as it's entertaining, I don't care if you get yourselves killed."
Ikelos rubbed his temple, brushed the dust from his trousers, and stood.
"But now that Haimer is involved, I have to say — I want no part of this."
"In fact, to keep your idiocy from dragging me down with it, I will go to the Guild myself before you make your move and hand over everything you've been up to in the Dungeon."
"Worst case I get sent back to the Heavens. That's still better than making that man unhappy."
The moment those words landed.
The air in the basement dropped to absolute zero.
Everyone stood dumbstruck.
Even the members who'd been reaching for their weapons froze where they stood.
Their own chief deity — who had always operated on one and only one principle: that something had to be fun — who had watched them do every manner of terrible thing without so much as blinking — was now saying he would voluntarily turn himself in to the Guild?!
"Are you out of your mind?!"
A vein leapt at Dix's temple. He crossed the room in two or three strides, seized Ikelos by the collar with one hand, and half-lifted him from the ground. The eyes behind his goggles burned with open menace.
"We're all tied to the same rope! You sell me out, you don't walk away clean either! You think that kind of thing scares me?!"
Dix bit out the words through clenched teeth.
To everyone's surprise.
Confronted with the physical threat of a Lv. 5 captain who had both the size and the muscle to back it up, Ikelos didn't flinch in the slightest.
He didn't even struggle. He simply let Dix's grip tilt his head sideways.
"Oh? You want to kill me?"
Ikelos curled his lip and gave a smile saturated with contempt.
"Go ahead. Do it. All it means for me is I get sent back to the Heavens and go back to living that unbearably dull existence."
And at that.
The motion of Dix's hand stopped dead.
Because he knew Ikelos far too well.
This was a god who lived purely for entertainment — capable of doing absolutely anything in pursuit of a thrill. But because of that, he had never, without some genuine reason, stood in the way of anything they wanted to do.
Today's reaction was deeply, unmistakably wrong.
"What exactly are you afraid of?"
Dix let go. He allowed Ikelos to find his footing, and scowled with a ferocity that could have crushed flies.
"That guy Haimer — however dangerous he acts, he's still just some washed-up god with his divine power sealed away. Guild rules are Guild rules. Even if we go take the monsters back, he can't use his divine power. What is there to be scared of?!"
Ikelos smoothed out the collar Dix had crumpled.
"There is nothing to be gained from provoking him."
"You people know that gods get their divine power sealed when they descend to the Lower World. That much you've grasped."
"But use your heads for a moment."
Ikelos sat back down on the steps and bit anxiously at his fingernail.
"Why are the Guild, Ganesha, and Loki and the rest of them quietly allowing him to walk monsters through the streets?"
"Is it really because they simply believe what he says?"
"No! I know him too well!"
A feverish light flickered in Ikelos's eyes.
"Even if there's this tedious rule about not being able to use divine power after descending, he would absolutely, without a doubt, have done something to this body of his before he ever came down."
"His divine concept and the authority he chose to retain after descending… it is very likely targeted at hostility itself."
"The deeper the hostility directed at him, the stronger he becomes. The moment someone attacks him, his power ratchets up automatically — he could tear an opponent apart without ever needing to call on divine power at all!"
Dix stared, knocked back on his heels.
"Hostility makes him stronger? What kind of godforsaken passive ability is that?"
"What else could it be?!"
Ikelos spread both hands wide, wearing the absolute certainty of a man who has seen through the greatest conspiracy in the world.
"You think he deliberately walked those intelligent monsters out to the surface to do a good deed?"
"He's fishing."
"He's bored out of his mind, so he deliberately stirred up this kind of outrage-inducing spectacle — specifically to goad all you short-sighted fools into coming after him!"
"The moment any of you make a move, you become his toys. Legal playthings for him to vent violence on."
"And when it's over, you won't even know how you died — and worse, you'll drag me down with you into the wreckage."
Hearing all of that.
Dix's hand jerked to a sudden stop.
The wild, raging emotion inside him felt as though someone had thrown a bucket of ice water over it — it compressed, hard.
Absorbing hostility?
Gets stronger the more he's targeted?
If someone else had said it, Dix would have laughed it off as a joke.
But taken together with what had happened this afternoon — the fact that this god had driven back every Lower World Familia present with nothing but words — and now, tonight, everything Ikelos had just laid out.
The wild fury that had been burning across Dix's face slowly went cold.
Because even if he was a desperado, he wasn't the kind of fool who enjoyed handing enemies free experience.
If it was exactly as Ikelos said — if someone had laid a trap and was waiting for him to walk into it — then going over there with a team would be walking straight into a snare of his own making.
"Damn it!"
Dix swore viciously and drove his boot into the stone wall.
"Captain… so what do we do now?"
The tall, lanky subordinate sensed the mood softening slightly, swallowed, and edged carefully forward to ask.
"Are we really just going to let this go? Those were premium-grade merchandise — they would've fetched a fortune!"
"Let it go your ass!"
Dix wheeled around and cracked the back of his hand across the subordinate's head, sending him stumbling sideways.
He raked a hand irritably through his black hair and bit down on his back teeth.
"Since Ikelos has spelled it out this clearly, we'll swallow this one for now."
"Think of the ones he took as temporarily picking up a new master."
"But!"
"The Dungeon is enormous — there are endless labyrinths below the eighteenth floor!"
"Pass the word to every man: take the Daedalus Orb, add more people, and go deep through the Knossos passages!"
"We give that god's operation a wide berth — but every last monster left in the Dungeon is ours for the taking!"
"Keep hunting! Hunt until we've stripped it clean!"
____
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