"Hee..."
What I'd confessed was whether or not I should accept Finn's request. Of course, I left out anything I absolutely couldn't say.
After hearing my worries, Materia listened seriously, then fell into thought.
"...What do you think?"
I felt a little bad for making her deal with this, but since things had come to this, I also wanted to hear someone else's opinion. I wondered what Materia would say...
"Hmm, let's see..."
She rested a hand on her chin and thought for a moment.
"To put it bluntly, you're frustrating."
"Huh?"
"A man should have a more straightforward side to him! Ah, of course, I'm not saying being frustrating is bad or anything!"
It was a bit harsh, but there was no real malice in her words.
"I may be irresponsible to say this without knowing the details of your circumstances, but if you want my opinion, I think the problem is that you're worrying about it so much in the first place."
"You should just do what you want, as much as you want. I don't know what kind of situation you're in, Vesta-kun, but I don't think you need to overcomplicate it."
It was a terribly irresponsible thing to say. Just do what you want, as much as you want—who wouldn't know that?
But strangely enough, hearing it did make some of the knots in my head loosen. Maybe because she was such an easygoing person, I felt like some of that ease had rubbed off on me too.
"...Thank you. That helped."
"No, no. If it helped, I'm happy too."
Materia smiled as she said that.
...She really was a strange person. The more I looked at her, the more I felt that way.
A woman with a comfort I couldn't quite put into words. If I had to compare her to anything, she was like my goddess... a woman with something benevolent about her.
"Has your worry eased a little?"
"Thanks to you."
"Sugar is the best thing for complicated thoughts! I'll give you some of the snacks I've been saving, so eat up and cheer yourself on."
"Ah... yes..."
Sweet things weren't really my thing... but if she was offering, I couldn't exactly say I didn't want them.
...Hm? Snacks? For some reason, it felt like I'd forgotten something...
"They're in here... huh?"
Watching Materia rummage through the cupboard inside, I realized it.
Right. When Grandpa came by before, I didn't have anything to serve him, so I'd brought out the snacks that were here.
I'd been so shocked by that incident that I'd completely forgotten to restock them. What a mistake to make...
"I'm sorry. A guest came by before, so I ended up serving those as refreshments..."
"..."
"I'll buy more right away, so for now..."
"...You did what?"
"Huh...?"
"Those were saved..."
"Um..."
"I worked so hard to get those... I'd been holding back and saving them to eat little by little..."
Eh? What was this? Scary.
From the back of Materia's figure, it felt like something black was billowing out. The atmosphere had changed somehow...
"Eek?!"
Her blue eyes, like the sea, fixed on me. A fear I'd never felt before began to ravage my body.
This, this was... fear condensed to about two hundred times the intensity of my goddess's expression when I got home after being chased all day through the pleasure district...!
"How dare you..."
"W-wait. Don't come any closer—"
"How dare you eat my snacckkss!!"
"Kyaaa—?!"
Crash
"I'm sorry... I'm sorryyyy..."
"Honestly... next time, I'll never forgive you."
After finally being forgiven, I lowered the arm I'd been holding up.
Haaah, what a terrible time. It was hard to even put into words—just an incredibly frightening, miserable time.
There was nothing sharp about it like Arphia or Hera, but it felt like something inescapable had wrapped itself around me.
I'd never actually been through it, but it felt like being scolded by my parents. In any case, it was a pretty strange experience.
After calming her anger and promising to prepare new snacks, I was finally forgiven.
"Oh my, it's already this late..."
Before I knew it, the sky had turned red with sunset. It was about time to head back, before the others started worrying.
"I should be going home for today..."
"I'll make sure to prepare the snacks, so don't worry."
"I wasn't worried?!"
Maybe she was embarrassed that she'd just chewed out a man in his thirties over snacks, because Materia shouted with her face red.
Though if that was her excuse, her resentment toward food seemed pretty intense. Judging by the way she was acting, she looked ready to scold even Hera if it came to that.
"Will you be able to get back on your own? If it's difficult, I can see you off."
"Eh...? I already have a boyfriend, so that kind of blatant advance is a little..."
"Cut the crap."
"Yessir."
Materia laughed softly at that. She really was a good person.
"Then may I ask you to?"
"Of course."
I got ready to leave and headed toward Hera Familia.
'But why did the Empress disappear?'
There wouldn't have been any need for me to escort her if that was the case. Was she busy as the Familia captain after all?
*
Rewinding time a little, immediately after the Empress had brought Materia down to the basement.
"I'm back, old hag."
"Who're you calling an old hag, you old maid."
Hera Familia's home.
Having finished her errand, the Empress came to Hera's private room to report.
"Was it really okay? Leaving Materia alone?"
The Empress hadn't wanted to leave Materia behind. She cared about her own members in her own way, so she had been willing to stay with her until the end, but because of her goddess's orders, she'd had no choice but to return.
"Alone? There was another one there, wasn't there?"
"Isn't that more of a problem...?"
The Empress couldn't hide her confusion at Hera's reaction.
Hera, who cared for Materia almost as much as Arphia did, had left her alone with some stranger who'd suddenly appeared... She'd obeyed the order for now, but why do something so dangerous?
"You were hurling every insult you could at that cutie before."
"When did I ever do that? I never did."
"Old hag, have you finally gone senile— hm?"
Just as the Empress was about to fire off another insult at Hera, she suddenly felt something off and looked around the room.
"This room... was it always this clean?"
It wasn't as if the room was usually messy, but now it was so spotless that not a speck of dust could be seen.
"I'm always neat."
"No, no, this is beyond neat."
Every object was lined up perfectly, and it even smelled as though incense had been burned, filling the room with a faint fragrance.
She didn't know what the scent was, but even the Empress, who liked luxury, could tell it was a good one. It was probably expensive too, so why the sudden change...
"What... Since when did cleaning a room need a reason?"
"Well, I guess that's true, but..."
Hera was a hysterical woman, but she wasn't filthy.
In fact, because of her hysterical nature, there were days when she'd suddenly go on a cleaning frenzy over something dirty, and on those days the room would end up this spotless more often than not.
But the Empress's instincts told her this wasn't that.
"...What about those snacks?"
There were piles of snacks stacked off to one side.
Seeing colorful sweets and drinks prepared as if to say, "I don't know what they'll like, so I got everything," the Empress couldn't help but ask.
The snacks themselves weren't the issue. In a Familia made up entirely of women, snacks were by far the most popular thing. Even if the goddess and her children were hysterical, they were still women. In fact, because they were hysterical, they tended to be especially weak to sweets.
Hera liked snacks too. But she didn't seem like the type to stockpile them like that...?
"...I just felt like it."
"..."
The Empress felt very irritated, but couldn't think of anything to say and ended up feeling frustrated instead.
It was a scene from before Materia and Vesta came to Hera Familia.
========================
The website for reading paid chapters is available on my Patreon. The number of chapters on Patreon: 55
Link: patreon.com/UltraMagnus_T