“Really, I was so scared!”
The Goddess of Time, who entered my room, wipes her tears with the back of her hand while sniffling. When I hand her a handkerchief, for some reason, she only uses it to blow her nose and returns it to me without wiping her tears.
“What was so scary?”
As she immediately throws the handkerchief into the trash, the goddess sniffles and stomps her feet on the floor.
“Beasts and humans! Wait, is that the same thing? There were so many people who looked at me and wanted to take me away!”
“……”
“Daniel, maybe you misunderstood? Humanity really was meant to perish, wasn’t it? If I tell you what I went through, I bet you would think the same…!”
“Don’t generalize. There are more good people than bad. You must have seen people who weren’t bad while you were on the way here.”
“W-well, that’s true.”
The Goddess of Time fidgets and lowers her head. As I say this, she seems to recall something and starts counting on her fingers.
“Now that you mention it, the lady next door often bakes cookies for me, and the old man at the fruit shop was nice too, and the neighborhood dog was good, right?”
Suddenly expressing her pleasant memories, the Goddess of Time smiles widely. Watching her like this makes me understand what the God of Life meant when he said humans had ‘devolved’.
It’s clearly more regression than evolution.
“I get it. Why did you run away? Sen and everyone else are worried.”
“No, I wasn’t trying to run away!”
“Not trying to?”
When I meet her gaze while lowering my eyes, the Goddess of Time fidgets and turns away. Then she suddenly screams.
“I-I can’t tell you! It’s a mission! Top secret! And really important!”
“……A mission? Top secret?”
I feel like I’ve heard this somewhere before.
“Oh, you understand! If I accomplish this, I’ll be recognized as a true member!”
“What on earth are you talking about?”
“D-Daniel just stay still! I absolutely won’t cause you any harm!”
“Your being here is already a harm to me, you know?”
At my words, the Goddess of Time runs over with a teary face. Thanks to her, my school uniform is now stained with tears and snot. It feels like she’s doing it on purpose.
“Daniel! Just let me sleep here for one night! Then I’ll really go back right away! Please!”
“……”
I don’t understand why she’s doing this, but I thought I’d let her sleep in my room for now. It’s already dark outside, and I explained to the other students in the dormitory that she’s my little sister.
“Fine, you can sleep here for now. I’ll get a coachman tomorrow and send you back to the village.”
“Thank you, Daniel! I’ll really do my best!”
“No, don’t do anything. Just staying still is helping you.”
“……It’s a wound though.”
Take it.
I was in trouble without a blanket, but May happened to visit and brought one.
“Huh, you could just sleep in my room, you know?”
May looks down at the Goddess of Time, who is laying the blanket on the floor with her arms crossed. She clearly shows her displeasure, and if I step away, she looks ready to hit.
And the Goddess of Time must have felt that because she shakes her head vigorously.
“No way! May will just hit me!”
“She’ll hit you a few times, I guess. But she won’t hit you hard. A few hits will be enough.”
“B-but I’m a goddess!”
“A single blow to kill a god. I’ve always wanted to try that.”
As May approaches, punching the air, the Goddess of Time hides right behind me. I sigh and step in to mediate between them.
“Calm down a bit. May, don’t hit her for no reason.”
“I was going to sleep here today.”
“……”
May glances at my bed, truly disappointed. I move a step to the side to secure my bed.
Then May crosses her arms and suggests to the Goddess of Time.
“Why don’t you just sleep in my room instead? You could use it comfortably all alone.”
The Goddess of Time makes a sudden freezing expression but immediately shakes her head, decisively refusing.
“No way! I absolutely will sleep in the same room as Daniel today!”
“……You’re not thinking anything strange, are you?”
As May glares at her, the Goddess of Time hops up and down like a startled chicken.
“Yes?!”
Feeling like she’s been caught off guard, May comes closer and reaches out her hand with anticipation.
Thud.
“Oof!”
Suddenly, grasped by a man’s weakness and dignity, I stiffen up. Tension fills my body as I feel May’s touch through my clothes.
“Just to be clear, this is mine. Even now, I barely have a share because I share with a few people, and I can’t let a strange girl get in the mix.”
“No, no way! That’s absolutely not it! I would divide it into like nine portions at this point!”
“Hmm, you know that well.”
She nods, looking satisfied, but her hand doesn’t let go.
“L-let it go.”
“Huh.”
So this is what it feels like to be at a disadvantage. Chills run down my spine, and I feel like thorns are poking me.
May starts to wrap her hand with mana. If this goes wrong, it’ll get ripped off.
“Hey! Hey!”
I thought this was crossing the line, but…
May grins with a chilling smile and delivers a kind of death sentence.
“I heard rumors about two girls’ voices coming from your room?”
“……”
“One of them is me. That day, I couldn’t stand it. I begged you to stop. Even when I pleaded, you didn’t give me a minute’s rest, and eventually, the sounds leaked out.”
“……”
“So I said I was in danger.”
“……That was true.”
“The other one is Eve? While I was working late, you two had quite the time. Hmm, that’s fine. It’s okay.”
“Do you think apologizing would change anything?”
When I lowered my stance, May glared at me with sharp eyes, then sighed and nodded.
“Let’s go out on a date this weekend. Is there anywhere you want to go?”
Nodding in agreement, May finally lets go. I realize I was tense for no reason and sheepishly compose myself.
“If I stay too long, the students outside will look at me strangely. I’ll let it go for today, but if you touch that little girl, you’ll really die.”
“I would never do that.”
I can say that with certainty.
And the goddess beside me salutes and shouts.
“I will never do that!”
Hearing a satisfying response from her, May waved and walked outside.
The rest was uneventful. We took turns showering, and I found out that a lot happened at my house during the time I was gone, so the Goddess of Time rambled on about that.
Then she naturally dozed off, and I closed my eyes to welcome tomorrow.
And then I opened my eyes.
“Wasn’t today the day we weren’t doing it?”
The place was an ordinary household.
After coming to this dream three times, I’ve gotten used to it and no longer feel surprised. Glancing around, I see Rin sitting at the table, sipping tea.
“Hello.”
I waved to Rin, and she waved back as I sat down across from her. I took a sip of the tea she poured and spoke.
“The goddess who ran away came to me. I don’t know why, but she said something about a mission. Do you know anything about it?”
“Hmm.”
Rin rests her chin on her hand, wearing a mysteriously playful smile.
“I do know, but I won’t tell you.”
“Huh? You know?”
Warm tea flows down my throat. The warmth naturally wraps around my body, and it feels nice.
“Yes, this time I’m not on Daniel’s side.”
“Not on my side?”
I couldn’t follow what she was saying at all.
But it seemed that Rin didn’t intend to elaborate further. She crossed her legs, brought over some snacks, and offered them to me.
“Let’s just talk instead. We don’t usually get to do this.”
“Right, because someone charges in so fast that we can’t even have a proper Philo talk.”
“You barely get to have a Philo talk either. You have to do it with someone else.”
“……”
That wasn’t completely wrong, so I shyly looked away. Rin giggled and lightly said it didn’t matter.
“It’s fine; I already said we all came to an agreement.”
“Sigh, that’s true.”
While it was hard for my conscience to accept that they didn’t want to choose just one person, they kept pushing for it, so I eventually accepted.
But I felt like it could fall apart at any moment.
However, Rin seemed to think differently.
“We spent three years living without you.”
“……That’s true.”
“You don’t know how terrifying, scary, and pointless it was during that time.”
She forced a smile, but the bitterness and pity within her could not be hidden. Just recalling those memories seemed to cause her pain.
“So just coming back like this is already enough. Wanting more than this is greedy. And I hate the thought of not being able to see you.”
After a moment’s pause, I rubbed the teacup with my fingers and replied.
“Okay, if that’s the answer you’ve come up with, I’ll follow it too.”
The same response I gave when I first heard this opinion.
Rin then smiled brightly, walked over, and hugged me tightly.
“I honestly want to try it in a dream too, but today isn’t my time.”
“What are you even talking about?”
Feeling oddly anxious, I asked again, and Rin snapped her fingers while laughing.
“Don’t be too harsh on the girl who offered her first.”
Snap!
I wake up.
It’s still early dawn.
I was still in my room, and the Goddess of Time was stuck against the wall, sniffling because the floor was too hard to sleep on.
And the small, warm body I felt in my arms.
The white-haired girl sleeping peacefully in her birthday suit was breathing softly.
“Sen?”
That wasn’t the end of it.
Her pajamas and panties were missing, leaving her lower body feeling empty and damp.
The stickiness of Sen’s thin thighs.
“……Ah.”
I’ve been caught.
