"Haah."
That thought reached its end, and Haimer let out a stale breath, lowered his arms, and glanced at the wall clock whose hands had already crawled around to three in the morning. Then he turned his head toward Tsukuyo Inaba and Lili, both sitting there so obediently.
He had assumed the two of them would go straight to bed.
And yet.
After Haimer wished them goodnight, Tsukuyo Inaba, seated off to one side, strangely made no move to rise.
Tsukuyo kept her head lowered, strands of silver hair falling along both cheeks to hide most of her face. Her feet, wrapped in snow-white tabi, twisted together restlessly against the wool carpet.
What she could not drive out of her mind were the sounds her "Mind's Eye" had caught when it slipped free of her control earlier: the low, unsteady breathing and the wet sounds from the master bedroom, all of it steeped in "Kami-sama's scent."
The images careened around inside her skull.
And the thought that the Kami-sama she idolized had given that special affection to Marie and Rei left Tsukuyo feeling as sour as if she had bitten into a whole mouthful of unripe lemon.
"Kami-sama..."
Tsukuyo had finally scraped together an enormous amount of courage.
"Hm?" Haimer had been about to head upstairs. He stopped and looked back at her, puzzled.
Tsukuyo pulled in a deep breath and clenched the hem of her clothes with both hands, as though spending every ounce of strength she would ever have in this life just to force one face-heating, heart-pounding sentence up out of her throat.
"Tonight... may Tsukuyo... sleep with Kami-sama?"
The words landed, and someone might as well have pressed a mute button over the entire hall.
Lili's big chestnut eyes went perfectly round, her jaw dropping nearly to the floor.
L-Lady Tsukuyo, what is she saying?!
Lili's brain simply refused to keep up.
Was Lady Tsukuyo really that bold?!
Lili swallowed, and her small face turned scarlet where anyone could see it.
Haimer rubbed at the space between his brows, at a loss.
He could guess well enough what had happened. Tsukuyo hadn't been able to rein in her "Mind's Eye" out of curiosity, had overheard something she shouldn't have, and now that jolt had brought every drop of her competitiveness and possessiveness surging to the surface.
"Tsukuyo, are you sure?"
Haimer sighed, but no reproach came with it.
"Tsukuyo... just wants to be a little closer to Kami-sama."
Tsukuyo bit her lip. Blind as she was, she could not see Haimer's face, but her obstinate determination showed in every line of her.
So she steeled herself, stood, shuffled over to Haimer in small steps, put out one little hand with its thin calluses, and took hold of his palm.
Haimer looked down at the stubborn girl and could only shake his head.
As for Lili, off to the side.
Watching Tsukuyo dare so much, her pulse went wild.
If, if Lady Tsukuyo was allowed, then maybe Lili... maybe Lili could reach for a little happiness of her own too?
After more than ten years of being trampled on, Lord Haimer was the first person who had ever treated her as a human being, who would rest a hand on her head and tell her she had worked hard.
He was the sunlight she had never dared dream of, back when she lived in the gutters.
With that, Lili clamped her teeth together and fisted her small hands in the hem of her slightly oversized new pajamas. She drew a deep breath, squeezed her eyes shut, and called out in a tiny voice:
"L-Lili... can Lili come too?!"
The words out, Lili shook from head to toe, terrified of hearing a refusal.
That did it.
Haimer went still for a moment.
Then he looked at Tsukuyo clinging to his hand, and at Lili with her flushed face and her fragile, careful hope, and something soft in him was quietly nudged.
"All right."
He turned his hand over and folded Lili's small one into his palm as well.
"The master bedroom's taken by Marie and the others tonight anyway. We'll all sleep together."
And that settled it.
The next morning.
Inside Tsukuyo Inaba's room.
Three figures lay tangled together on the bed.
Tsukuyo's long lashes trembled as she drifted up out of deep sleep.
Half her body was sprawled across Haimer's solid chest, and one slender leg had been thrown over his waist without the slightest ceremony.
On Haimer's other side, Lili was likewise curled into a small ball, like a cat that had found a stove, sleeping soundly, her breathing slow and even.
Sensing Tsukuyo stir, Haimer opened his eyes and lifted a hand to rub gently at that head of silver hair.
"Awake?"
At that low voice, Tsukuyo's cheeks flooded crimson. Remembering just how "bold" she had been last night, she wanted nothing more than to find a crack in the floor and crawl into it. And yet the solid, settled feeling of waking up against Kami-sama's chest made her unwilling to let go.
"Kami-sama..." Tsukuyo burrowed her small face deeper into his chest.
"I'm sorry. Did Tsukuyo sleep too heavily... when we agreed there was so much to do today."
Haimer laughed softly, carefully lifted her leg off his waist, and sat up. "Don't blame yourself."
"You and Lili were both worn out last night. I took the liberty of going downstairs a while ago and telling the others to let the two of you rest properly."
"While I was at it, the rest of them have already gone to the Guild to report the rank updates. Judging by the time, they should be causing a fair amount of commotion over there right about now."
Tsukuyo's cheeks went redder still.
She wrung the corner of the quilt between her hands, her voice full of chagrin.
"Making Kami-sama worry over Tsukuyo is a complete failure of duty."
"Enough. Stop hanging all those rules off the end of every sentence."
Haimer rolled out of bed, pulled on a clean shirt, and glanced back at Lili, still bundled in the covers.
"Since you're up, go wash your face. We have real business to handle next."
"Real business?" Tsukuyo straightened her miko garments and tilted her head slightly, uncertain.
"That's right." Haimer fastened the buttons at his collar as he spoke. "Now that the frame of this [Haimer Familia] of ours is up, it's time we had a look at the new base. According to the reports from my people, construction is coming along well. The outer walls are nearly finished, and only the interior is left."
"On top of that, I promised to forge a batch of weapons for those adventurers of Orario. That's no small undertaking."
"Which means we also have to pay a visit to the [Hephaestus Familia] and buy up a supply of raw ore."
As he said it, Haimer's gaze settled on Lili, who had just clambered upright, rubbing her eyes.
He walked over and gave her head a light squeeze.
"Also, since we're going to Hephaestus's place to buy materials anyway, we may as well settle the matter of Lili's weapon at the same time."
"It's about time Lili had something better suited to her hands."
Lili's still-fuzzy head cleared in an instant.
Her eyes went wide, and she pointed at the tip of her own nose, stammering in disbelief:
"L-Lord Haimer is going to forge a weapon for Lili?!"
Divine-made weapons were famously expensive in Orario.
Lili was overwhelmed, her eyes stinging.
"Kami-sama, that's far too precious! Lili... Lili doesn't need you to spend so much..."
"Don't talk nonsense."
Haimer crooked a finger and flicked her smooth forehead, his tone putting on sternness while the warmth underneath refused to hide itself.
"You're an indispensable commander in this Familia, the eyes of our intelligence, the linchpin of the party. A good weapon is what you've earned."
His large hand came back down to rest on top of Lili's head, ruffling it gently.
"Remember, every single member of this Familia is a child I treasure."
"So don't make me be stingy about showing how much I care for you."
Lili's face burned as she nodded hard, carving that gratitude somewhere deep where it would never wear away.
Before long the three of them were ready and headed downstairs.
In the first-floor hall.
Rei, Fei and Rania sat on the sofa, talking.
Aruru and Hegel were out in the central courtyard, soaking up the sun.
Then they saw Haimer come down with Tsukuyo and Lili.
Everything that had happened in the master bedroom the night before came rushing back to Rei at once. A faint blush spread across both cheeks, and she had to fight the urge to bury her face in her feathers.
"Miss Rei, I'm taking Tsukuyo and Lili to Northeast Main Street. I'll leave the mansion in your hands for now," Haimer said, looking at her.
"Y-yes... please take care, Kami-sama."
Rei didn't dare so much as lift her head, and her answer came out in stammers, her wings ruffled with nerves.
Haimer nodded.
Then the sound of the front door shut the street away outside.
Only then did Rania, silent all this while, let her gaze drift across Rei's reddened cheeks.
"Rei."
"You have a very strong scent of Kami-sama on you."
The words dropped into the room.
That deliberately ambiguous remark turned the flush on Rei's cheeks a shade deeper at once.
"Wh-where do I! Rania, don't say ridiculous things!"
Rei hurried to shield herself with her broad wings, trying to cover whatever faint marks the magical reshaping might have left along her neck. By now she was red to the roots of her throat and would have gladly dug a hole in the floor and vanished into it.
Watching Rei flounder in a way that only advertised what she was hiding, Rania let out a quiet sigh to herself.
Things being what they were, there was nothing an onlooker like her could do.
In matters like this, so long as Kami-sama was willing, an outsider had no standing to say another word. She could only watch Rei squirm there in her embarrassment.
Meanwhile, the hall of the Adventurers Guild was weathering a storm the likes of which it had never seen.
Adventurers had packed themselves three rings deep in front of the enormous notice board.
Every last expression there could only be described as having seen a ghost.
"Hey, hey, hey!"
A bearded adventurer shoved his way roughly through the crowd, his voice cracking from how loud he was pitching it.
"Is this some kind of joke?!"
"How long has it even been? The whole lot of them went through Rank Sublimation again?!"
"That Koharu Narukami girl, didn't she only just register as an adventurer?"
"How does one riot take her all the way to Lv.3?!"
"You call that absurd?"
Another man, a Swordsman with a blade on his back, jabbed a finger at the very top of the board.
"Are you blind? Look at the line up there! Lady Holy Emperor's rating!"
"What about it?"
"Straight through the ranks in one go! Crowned and enthroned in a single stride, all the way up to Lv.4!"
"What?!"
"Lady Holy Emperor's rank sublimated to Lv.4?!"
Two ranks in a single leap. In the thousands of years since Orario was founded, no one had ever heard of such a thing outside of a tall tale.
But then they thought back to the riot that had swept the Labyrinth City the night before.
And every impossible thing settled quietly back into place.
After all.
During that riot.
The countless suffering residents of Orario had given it a name, the light that could heal all things: the "Emerald Sun"!
And plenty of adventurers with a clear line of sight had witnessed it with their own eyes.
Down from the tip of Babel Tower, where the "Emerald Sun" blazed at its brightest.
A griffin with a magnificent coat had glided through the night sky.
Two figures were plainly visible on its back.
Haimer, and the Holy Emperor.
It was rooted deep in common knowledge that a god who descends to the Lower World is not permitted to use their own "Arcanum" unless lives hang on it.
And on top of that.
Since arriving in Orario, the Holy Emperor had already used 『Gensokyo』 on any number of occasions to heal others.
And so.
People naturally connected that "green healing magic" with the light that had lit up the night sky.
From there.
The rumor that the "Emerald Sun that saved Orario" had in fact been high-tier wide-area magic cast by the Holy Emperor spread through the city like wildfire.
And therefore.
With the staggering excelia the Holy Emperor had accumulated by saving over half the city of Orario.
A jump clean across a boundary to Lv.4 was something no one could argue with.
When word spread that the Holy Emperor had sublimated twice in a row to Lv.4, waves of sharply indrawn breath ran through the crowd.
And that was not all.
Behind the counter, Eina stood frozen stiff, dumbstruck.
She held several parchment documents that had just received the Guild's stamp, and her hands were shaking. Even with all her rigorous professional training, she could hardly make herself believe it.
"Lv.4... and the growth in her Abilities, terrifying is the only word for it."
Eina swallowed and turned her eyes toward the lounge area at the side of the hall.
"Two whole ranks at once... Lady Holy Emperor..."
Over in the lounge, the very people who had caused all this uproar were leisurely drinking the free black tea the Guild provided.
"Hey, hey, Koharu."
Nomura Satori cradled a cup of hot tea, her long emerald hair spilling over her shoulders. She teased Koharu Narukami beside her with a squint-eyed smile, light glinting in her yellow irises.
"Looks like everyone's attention has landed squarely on Miss Holy Emperor this time."
"Koharu's only been in Orario three days, you know. Reaching Lv.3 in three days should be an even louder headline than this. If Miss Holy Emperor hadn't put on her little show, you'd be the one everyone was bowing down to right now."
Koharu Narukami set her teacup down at the teasing. Her signature dark purple half-bob swung as she glanced at the adventurers gesticulating out in the hall, contempt filling her eyes.
"Boring."
"What I want is to be absolutely the strongest. The absolute power that can stand at Kami-sama's side. Meaningless fame like that doesn't interest me."
"Oh? The strongest?"
Amou Kirukiru, seated on the other side, slowly lowered her own cup at that.
She crossed one long leg over the other, the corners of her eyes tilting up, and turned a wild, keenly interested stare on Koharu Narukami, her mouth curving into a smile with real aggression in it.
"What a coincidence. Standing at that so-called summit, becoming the absolute power at Kami-sama's side, I happen to want exactly the same thing."
"The strong really do draw each other in. Looks like sooner or later, you and I are going to have to settle which of us is above the other."
Amou Kirukiru finished speaking.
And in the air between their locked stares, sparks were faintly striking.
____
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