After finishing the story, I climbed the stairs and headed back to the surface.
...Was this underground? It felt like I'd been imprisoned or something.
Of course, I didn't think Lady Arphia would ever do that, but as someone who'd had a similar experience once before, it felt like my trauma was about to resurface.
Amazon... the pleasure district... toad...
Guh, my head!
"...Are you all right?"
"Ah, yes... well, I'm fine."
"If there's a problem, say so. I'll prepare an elixir if necessary."
As I clutched my head, Lady Arphia was the first to offer that suggestion, looking oddly flustered.
Come to think of it, Lady Arphia had attacked me and knocked me out. Did she think this was an injury from her attack?
More importantly, she'd prepare an elixir? Was she really going to spend that kind of luxury just because of a little headache... As expected of a large Familia, they really were different.
Our Familia was always scraping by on capital, and Lilly would scream every day while balancing the books.
By the time I finished climbing the stairs, a building that felt both unfamiliar and familiar came into view.
This place...
"Hera Familia...?"
Had I been unconscious in the basement of Hera Familia this whole time?
More precisely, I'd been imprisoned, but I decided not to dwell on that part.
"What am I supposed to do from here on out?"
"Hm...?"
"No, I mean, I'm supposed to come by periodically and use the skill, right?"
From what I'd heard, once the sacred flame was lit, the best condition lasted for about a week.
Then once a week. No, if I was being generous, once every five days should be enough to keep her in peak condition.
There was no way I could eat and sleep here anyway, since this place was strictly off-limits to men, and I had no intention of doing so in the first place. So all we had to do was decide when I'd come, and then part ways for today...
"Ah, you're going to live here with me starting today."
...Huh?
"No, that's weird, isn't it?!"
"Be quiet."
"Bweh?!"
A lightning-fast slap. It didn't hurt, but I marveled at the exquisite control that made my head snap sideways and then sent me flopping onto the bed.
How had this happened? Let me rewind a little.
I had strongly opposed Lady Arphia's bombshell declaration, but she snapped at me and marched straight to Lady Hera.
"I'm keeping this one with me for the time being."
"K."
Even Lady Hera, my only hope, agreed in an instant for some reason, and before I could even say anything, it was decided that I'd be living in Hera Familia.
"Wait! I still need to ask Lord Ouranos—"
"I'll tell that man in advance, so don't worry."
Even my hastily prepared excuse was disposed of in an instant.
Ah, right. There was no way Hera Familia wouldn't be connected to Lord Ouranos. So this had been a pointless struggle from the start.
"More importantly, wasn't Lady Hera supposed to hate men?"
Hera Familia was a Familia of women only. Was it really okay for me to be in a place like that?
I hadn't been able to think clearly at the time, so I hadn't realized it, but now that I thought about it, it was extremely suspicious. There was clearly something I didn't know... but I had no idea what it was.
"Haa, what's the problem with that? The problem is the current situation."
I hadn't realized it, but Lady Arphia seemed to have a serious distrust of people.
I didn't know the exact reason, but she seemed so anxious about me slipping out of her hands that she wanted me within her sight at all times.
At least she hadn't imprisoned me, so I should be grateful for that... though if I thought about what had just happened, one wrong move and I might be locked up immediately.
"If we fought, could I win?"
If I were in perfect condition, and if she were still burdened by her illness, then as arrogant as it sounded, I could have said with confidence that I'd win.
But if I considered my current condition and hers?
'Feels like I'd lose.'
My strength had dropped considerably, but more importantly, her shackles had all come off.
She was a near Lv. 8. That was Lady Arphia's current level of strength.
And I was probably around the same level, or maybe a little below. I'd have the edge in close combat, but she'd have the advantage in magic?
Either way, there wasn't much difference. In the end, the outcome would depend on the situation.
'This is bad...'
She was basically a bomb right now. No one could predict where her unstable mind might fly off to.
Maybe Lady Hera had understood Arphia's condition and deliberately brought me here.
If we stayed together long enough, trust would grow, and her mind would stabilize too.
"...Is that really it?"
Just as I was thinking that maybe this was a little too much, Lady Arphia emerged from the small room inside the room, changed into sleepwear.
"...!"
At the sight of her, I swallowed hard.
She was wearing a black home dress, much like her everyday clothes. A black silk dress with very little decoration.
It showed even less skin than her usual outfit, a neat set of sleepwear, but the unique atmosphere of sleepwear made my heart jump all at once.
Under the moonlight, the witch in her nightclothes looked less like a witch and more like a fairy.
She wasn't showing any skin at all, so why did she look so embarrassing? Feeling awkward for no reason, I turned my head away, but I couldn't hide my slightly flushed face.
She sat down on the bed without any particular reaction. The way she didn't seem to care about my presence at all made me snap irritably at her.
"...Still, isn't it a little too calm to have a man in the same room?"
"What? It's not as if I'm interested in your body anyway."
That may have been true, but wasn't that different from this?
Even if she wasn't interested in my body, wasn't it normal to be conscious of the situation?
More than that, sharing a room was going too far. Why had Lady Hera agreed to something this unreasonable?
"Well, you're..."
"I'm...?"
"You're..."
Lady Arphia wore an expression that suggested she knew something, as if she were hesitating over whether to say it or not.
What was it? Was there really something I didn't know? I was the one who'd come from the future, and yet I was the one who knew the least. Even now, I didn't have any advantage at all from being from the future.
Did I even have a reason to come from the future? It felt like I'd solved most things with brute force...
"No, nothing. Just know that there's no problem."
"What kind of answer is that?"
Whether she understood my feelings or not, Lady Arphia cut off the explanation and lay down.
She made it very clear that I shouldn't ask, so I stopped the conversation there.
If she didn't want me to ask, there was no need to force it.
'...But where am I supposed to sleep?'
There was only one bed. Sleeping together was out of the question... maybe I should sit in a chair and sleep, or curl up in a corner?
I was an adventurer too, so being a little uncomfortable while sleeping wasn't a problem. Compared to camping in the Dungeon, this was luxury.
I usually slept on a sofa rather than a bed anyway, so I didn't have much to complain about... Still, if they were going to drag me here by force, couldn't they at least prepare some bedding?
'Did they not prepare it... or couldn't they?'
Maybe they simply hadn't thought about it, or maybe the whole situation was so sudden that they hadn't had time.
If it was sudden, then why had this happened in the first place?
'Did she realize my situation?'
Maybe she had instinctively sensed that my body was the kind that could vanish at any time.
It was probably only a vague, unconscious feeling, but if that were the case, then I could understand why she'd committed this crime(?) while mentally unstable...
Maybe Lady Hera had noticed Arphia's condition and left me here on purpose. If the source of her worries was nearby, perhaps she'd calm down.
Still, I couldn't understand why she'd leave a grown man and woman alone in the same room, but if I had to find a reason, that seemed the most likely one.
Well, maybe it was because Lady Arphia didn't even think of me as a man. That happened often enough.
Back in the Familia too, there were times when people would crawl into my bed, so maybe this was just an extension of that.
The only difference was whether we were family or not.
"Family, huh..."
She should still be alive at this time.
I wasn't sure whether I should really call blood relatives I'd never even seen family.
If I ever met them, what would I even say? And could I even meet them in the first place?
What kind of people were my family? I'd never even heard anything from Grandpa, so honestly, there was almost no way to tell.
At best, maybe hair color was hereditary, so I could look for someone with white hair like mine?
'White hair, huh...'
Come to think of it, there had been one white-haired person I'd met in this era.
...No way. That couldn't be it.
I forcibly denied the possibility that had flashed through my mind. Even if it were true, it meant nothing to me now.
"Ah..."
"Hm?"
Suddenly, I heard someone groan.
Turning my head toward the source, I saw Lady Arphia sweating and grimacing.
Was she having a nightmare? Or was her body still hurting?
I didn't know what it was, but fortunately there was something I could do in this situation.
Whoosh—
I took her hand and quietly lit a sacred flame.
It was too small to drive everything away, but it should be enough to help a woman sleep.
Thankfully, it seemed to work. I could see Lady Arphia's expression loosening a little.
"...Cough."
Feeling something gradually being worn away, I kept the sacred flame burning all night so she could sleep soundly.
"Mm..."
Sunlight seeped through the curtains, dazzlingly bright.
Even as she frowned at the sharp light, Arphia sat up and stretched lightly.
The stiffness in her muscles loosened, and a strange sense of refreshment and satisfaction washed over her.
'...Refreshment?'
That was odd. Since when had I started my mornings feeling refreshed?
Even if the sacred flame improved my body, that was only temporary. By morning, discomfort usually came before anything else.
And yet here she was, starting the day feeling refreshed. It was no exaggeration to say this was a first in her life.
Why? The answer to the mystery was easy to see.
"...Hey?"
"..."
A white head was buried at the bedside, sleeping soundly.
For a moment she thought it was her younger sister, but the hair was a little shorter, and she quickly realized it was someone else.
'Right. Come to think of it, there was this.'
The person she had literally dragged back on a whim.
The human holding her lifeline in his hands.
'When did he get this far in?'
She had grabbed him impulsively last night, but now that her head was clear, regret came flooding in, making her think she'd done something foolish.
The intuition inside her had urged her on with a strange unease, and that was why she'd done this. Why had she gone and done something like this...
"Should I kick him out now...?"
She'd thought there wouldn't be a problem, but imagining him staying near her all night had made her feel vaguely unpleasant... or rather, not really, but still.
Even in this situation, the man before her felt far too harmless. Why had she come to trust him like this?
Was it because she'd seen him fight?
Or because of her younger sister—
"Haa, well, it was my own choice, so I can't really complain... hm?"
As she tried to get up, she suddenly felt something lightly catch on her hand.
Looking down, she saw that her index finger and the rabbit's index finger were touching.
Not intertwined, just barely touching.
Normally it would have been nothing but an unpleasant contact, but...
Whoosh—
The small flame flickering between them explained why their fingertips were connected.
'Come to think of it.'
She hadn't had her usual nightmare today.
Could he really have kept the flame burning all night?
It was easy to imagine how hard that must have been for Arphia, who already had so little stamina.
Why would he go through all that trouble for someone who had spent the whole day snapping at him? Arphia couldn't understand the man in front of her.
"But... well..."
Now that she knew it helped her sleep.
Maybe it would be fine to keep him around a little longer for the time being.
With that thought, she gently lifted the man's body into her arms.
She was a little impressed by how solidly trained his body was, and carefully laid him back on the bed without waking him.
Even Arphia couldn't bring herself to be cold to someone who had gone through so much trouble for her. At least from now on, she hoped he could sleep peacefully, and quietly left the room.
And the moment she stepped out, she saw the members of the Familia making some ridiculous assumption and saying things like, "Did you enjoy last night?" which sent her irritation soaring, so she used [Gospel] once.
Then, seeing Vesta wake up from the blast, she used it a second time to help her return to sleep.
Hera Familia was peaceful as always today.