The conversation is over. All that’s left is to have dinner and sleep.
A tremendous fatigue envelops my body, as if I have just finished a long, very long, and painful battle.
“I’m not really in the mood to eat.”
“I’m hungry,” Fiona replies.
Fiona is just as she always is. Nothing has changed about what she says, her attitude, or her atmosphere.
I’d be troubled if she suddenly started sweet-talking me just because we became lovers. I have no confidence to handle it calmly right now.
So, I’m grateful for the usual Fiona.
Well, she did cry just a little while ago.
“But I’m going to take a shower first.”
“Yeah, I’ll make something casually.”
“Thank you. What about Sariel?”
“Just let her sleep. She can take a shower tomorrow.”
I already laid Sariel down in an empty room in the dormitory. Fortunately, we have spare sheets and blankets on hand, so having one more bed to use isn’t a problem.
I’ve been sleeping with Sariel for the last three months, but starting today, I’ll be sleeping alone for the first time in a while. I definitely don’t feel lonely. I actually feel a slight sense of relief, as if a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.
“Did Chrono-san wash Sariel’s body in the development village?”
“…Yeah.”
“I see.”
She asked but doesn’t seem particularly interested in my answer. Still, I wonder if she’s concerned.
About her boyfriend seeing another woman’s naked body almost every day.
At the very least, if roles were reversed, she would care. I would care too. The fact that there’s no further inquiry is even more terrifying.
“What about Sariel’s meals?”
“She’s still awake, so I’ll let her eat.”
I can’t suggest that we eat together here. While she might allow it if I say it, I understand it wouldn’t put her in a good mood.
“Even though Sariel’s limbs are still missing, do you have any medicine or something?”
“No, I didn’t have anything that seemed useful for treatment, so I haven’t given her anything in particular.”
“I have a fairly strong healing potion. If she drinks it, it won’t regenerate her limbs, but it should help in healing what’s missing.”
“…Is that okay?”
“Yes, it’s much worse-tasting than dying.”
“N-No, please don’t.”
“I see.”
Sariel’s wounds can be healed slowly. For now, I have the situation set up where I can keep her by my side.
What happens next will depend on the Spada Army… but I won’t think about that today.
“Well then.”
With that, Fiona finishes her business-like checks and hastily heads to the shower.
The shower room here is old and probably dirty since it has been left unused for a while, but… well, if it’s Fiona, she can just use water magic to clean it up as she pleases.
“Haah…”
Once completely alone, a heavy sigh escapes me.
Pathetic. I really wonder if this was the right thing. I hesitate, but in the end, I couldn’t do anything about it.
“For now, maybe some soup will do.”
I decided to stop thinking and focus on cooking. A kind of reality escape.
I haven’t kept any food reserves, but there are supplies left over that Lily and the others prepared for Spada’s return. I’ll use that to make something simple today.
I stood in the dormitory kitchen for the first time in a while and, with a fuzzy head, lit the stove.
Time passed unconsciously as the work progressed steadily.
I tossed chopped ingredients into the soup pot, frying thick strips of bacon. Though they’re all just makeshift ingredients, I realize they are much higher quality than what I’ve eaten in the development village.
Even just this bacon and white bread would be a treat for Reki and Ursula. Remembering the smiles of the two of them, which only exist in my heart now, warmed my feelings a little.
“—I’m back.”
“Just in time; I finished up here too.”
Fiona returned from the shower at exactly the right moment. She had changed from her black witch robe into casual loungewear. Seeing her in the light blue cape again evokes a little sense of returning to the routine of Spada’s daily life.
“Let’s eat first. I’ll handle the cleanup and take some to Sariel, so you can rest once you finish eating, Chrono-san.”
“Yeah, thanks.”
As we chatted normally like this, it felt like everything that had just happened was a dream. Fiona is wholly her usual self, while only I am caught up in complex swirling emotions.
Did I truly become lovers with Fiona? I don’t feel it at all.
“What’s wrong, Chrono-san? You look dazed and tired.”
“No, I’m fine.”
I shook off the urge to get caught up in a whirlwind of thoughts and returned to the table.
For now, let’s just eat this and sleep. What to do next, the specifics and details, I’ll leave all of that for tomorrow’s me to figure out.
I knock on the old wooden door.
“Yes?”
After confirming the small, faint response, I opened the door.
What spreads before me is a room the same size and style as my own. However, since no one has used it until now, all that is here is a set of desk and chair, a closet, and a bed.
As the new master of this room, she—Seventh Apostle Sariel—was lying on the bed.
“I brought you some food.”
“Thank you.”
Her response is mechanical, with no change in her expression.
I can’t tell what she is thinking. Maybe she is thinking nothing at all.
“This is the soup Chrono-san made. Please eat it while it’s warm.”
With that, I set the steaming bowl of soup down on the floor, right in the middle of the room. It felt like feeding a pet dog.
“…”
Sariel alternately stares at the soup and me. She doesn’t move.
“What’s wrong? Hurry up and eat.”
“…Do you hate me?”
“I’m telling you to eat quickly.”
I grab her long, glossy silver hair and drag her out of bed.
Maybe it’s because she has no limbs, or maybe because her body is already small and slender, but I easily pulled her down to the floor.
With a dull thud, Sariel’s body hits the floor without even a groan.
Well, if she’s undergone the same surgery as Chrono-san, then such a shock would be nothing.
“Now, go ahead. You don’t need a spoon, right?”
I didn’t bring one in the first place.
What I have brought for her is this soup, and one more thing.
“This is a healing potion. It’s very disgusting, but please bear with it and drink it.”
Chrono-san wasn’t going to make her drink it, but there’s no need for that. If I want Sariel to recover quickly, I’ll do my best as promised.
More than anything, it would be too indulgent for that woman to savor the soup made by him.
I opened the cap on the potion bottle and poured the thick, gooey liquid, which is as blue as slime, into the soup bowl.
“…Mmm.”
Sariel moves her only intact left arm and lands awkwardly on the floor. It takes her several seconds to crawl the mere meter or so from the bed to the bowl of disgusting potion-mixed soup.
“Thank you for the meal.”
Muttering in a ridiculously earnest manner, Sariel leans in just like a dog and begins to slurp the soup.
Is this the end for Sariel, the strongest warrior that the Sinclair Republic boasts? One of the twelve most holy humans closest to God, the Seventh Apostle Sariel.
“How pitiful, Sariel.”
I step on her head as she humbly brings her face close to the soup bowl. I mercilessly press the dirty soles of my favored boots, which have been soiled by crossing the Galahad Mountain Range, against her shining silver hair.
My strength should make her able to easily shift her body and bounce back, but Sariel accepts this humiliating treatment without any resistance.
Her beautiful white face sinks into the ominous, murky blue liquid mixed with soup and potion.
“But I will not feel sorry for you. I despise you.”
I know that I can’t lie to myself. I tend to say what I’m thinking outright.
So, I say it honestly. I need to say it first because I can’t hide it for long.
“I want to kill you right now.”
But I can’t kill her. I can’t afford to.
This is the absolute condition I must endure to win Chrono-san. Yes, even if Lily-san can’t endure it, I can.
Because I resolved this long ago.
I realized the difference between me and Lily-san after the Last Rose Subjugation in the Asbel Mountain Range. I asked her what kind of dream Chrono-san was shown.
The answer was “a dream of his hometown.”
I asked further. Didn’t Chrono-san leave a lover in his hometown?
But Lily-san interrupted the question halfway. She didn’t ask. She didn’t consider the possibility. That there might already be someone he loves. No, to put it more bluntly, that Chrono-san may not be a virgin.
Lily-san feared that more than anything. That Chrono-san might have already accepted another woman.
Is it because she’s a fairy? Lily-san was pure when it came to sexual matters, much like an ideal of a Cross Religion Sister. She could even be considered noble.
A chastity standard that all women should aspire to.
However, Lily-san, imposing that onto men is a bit cruel.
I determine that I will devote my purity only to the one I love. But I do not expect it from Chrono-san. He is a man. He has been in another peaceful world called Japan for seventeen years. It wouldn’t be strange if he had a few women he developed feelings for during that time. He might even be of marrying age and potentially have children already.
I still don’t know. Whether Chrono-san had a lover in his hometown. Whether Sariel became his first woman.
It would be a lie to say I’m not curious. But I won’t think about it. I resolved to give that up.
I gave up on Chrono-san’s “first.” But Lily-san desired it. That is the definitive difference between us.
The moment I saw Chrono-san carrying Sariel in Alsace Fortress, I felt a sense of victory. I resolved to confess.
The plan hit me in an instant.
Chrono-san couldn’t kill Sariel. He wants to keep her alive. Hearing about his relationship with Sariel, specifically with Shirazaki Yuriko, a girl from the same hometown, made it clear to me how complicated their relationship is.
But I know he does not love her with all his heart. He does not desire to marry Sariel.
If I can understand that much, it’s enough.
Sariel has become the perfect hostage to ensure that I won’t be rejected when confessing. At the same time, she’s also a weapon to eliminate my strongest romantic rival, Lily-san.
Lily-san could never forgive Sariel for having been embraced by Chrono-san. Because of her nobility.
Even I was surprised at how easily Lily-san fled. Like a weak-looking girl, she ran away crying pitifully.
Though I’d have no confidence either to run away weeping if Chrono-san shouted “Stop!” and knocked me away.
Fortunately, ah, really fortunately, he didn’t reject me.
He truly is serious, Chrono-san. In such a situation, a girl approaching him like that would ordinarily be something only a normal man would knock away and silence.
But he listened to what I had to say, no matter how inconvenient it was for him. He didn’t cover his ears; he listened to every word.
I cannot fathom the suffering he went through.
I’m sorry, Chrono-san. I made you suffer—yet my overwhelming joy drowns out the guilt.
I can forgive being here.
“—It’s dirty, isn’t it? Please drink properly.”
When I noticed, Sariel was face-first in the soup, bubbling away. The grotesque-colored soup was equally soiling both her beautiful pale face and the dusty floor.
“Pfft… haa…”
Sariel’s breathing was small, yet slightly disordered. Just a soup bowl. It’s not deep enough to drown in.
“Don’t worry. This is just for now.”
I am different from the lowly female students who repeatedly engage in the ugly and vile acts known as bullying, despite being of noble blood at the magic academy.
Right now, I’m just unable to hold back a little.
Even if I’m prepared, when the words come from Chrono-san’s mouth… If it weren’t for Lily-san, my murderous intent would have surely been detected. Such is the shock and unease I feel.
“As long as you don’t betray Chrono-san, I will guarantee your safety.”
If you show any suspicious movements that might lead to colluding with the Crusaders, I would appreciate the excuse to kill you.
However, no matter how bothersome, taking unnecessary action here carries high risks. If Chrono-san were to find out I was trying to trap Sariel, this relationship would be over.
Continuing such insidious bullying would also carry great risks. As kind as he is, he isn’t so sweet as to accept a woman with such a rotten heart.
Therefore, there’s nothing more for me to do here. If necessary, I will take care of Sariel. In fact, I must take the initiative to do so. I cannot allow Chrono-san to have to handle Sariel’s bath or any other personal care anymore.
“Please don’t make it too much trouble for me. First, quickly finish that awful soup. Cleaning up afterward is my job.”
With that, I silently wait, watching the Seventh Apostle eat awkwardly like a dog.
I’ll clean up the floor where the soup has splattered, take down the dishes, wipe Sariel’s face, lay her down in bed… and then, let’s get started on the final touches.
“Ah, I’m so nervous; it’s the first night—”
Today, I’ll just go to sleep. But when I got into bed, why does it feel like my eyes are wide awake?
I understand. The cause of this fatigue is entirely mental, and I’m not physically exhausted at all. A slight rush over the mountain with Galahad, the return trip from the fortress to Spada. It had a certain ruggedness and a considerable distance. But with sufficient equipment and having come from the fortress with Merry, my body should not be tired.
If I think about it, the only one I could genuinely be pleased to reunite with so far is my beloved steed, the immortal horse Merry. The moment she saw me, she made a delightful sound and began to lick my face. She’s nothing like Sariel’s Pegasus.
By the way, I wonder if Sariel has fallen asleep already. After all, she was right next to me as I heard Fiona’s confession, but what does she think of this battle-soaked situation? Does she, in comparison to Shirazaki-san’s memories, think of me as an indecisive loser?
Through her experiences in the pioneering village, she has regained a little bit of her humanity, or rather, perhaps one could say she’s learned anew. In any case, I think I’ve seen changes in her. So maybe she has somewhat ordinary feelings… No, it doesn’t matter what Sariel thinks of me. It’s a completely trivial thought.
“—Chrono-san, are you still awake?”
I was startled by the sound of knocking and Fiona’s voice, feeling guilty for thinking of Sariel instead of her.
“I’m still awake. What is it, Fiona?”
“Can I come in?”
“Ah.”
There’s no reason to refuse.
Perhaps she wants to talk about the difficulties of caregiving, saying she wasn’t able to get Sariel to eat her soup well.
If that’s the case, leave it to me. Priest Chloe, with three months of experience in caring for Sariel, will guide her with thorough kindness—such foolish thoughts immediately vanished.
“W-wait… Fiona, what are you wearing…?”
With a small lamp in hand, her figure emerged from the shadowy doorway.
I could tell immediately that she was wearing a flared, one-piece nightgown. I’ve seen that kind of sleepwear several times, and it’s not particularly surprising.
However, this is entirely different. It’s the first time I’ve seen one so thin—no, it’s transparent.
Most of her clothing is see-through. While the chest area has a proper fabric, the lower part is almost at a level where it’s unclear if it serves any purpose in covering. It’s not so much that her body line is visible; rather, her bare skin is visible. I could see her belly button, and underneath that, what appeared to be a rather daring black bikini-style panty, vividly illuminated by the night vision I have.
“Is there something strange about my appearance?”
How can she say that with a straight face, as if she’s just wearing normal pajamas? I’m already trying my best to look away from her attire, which is far too stimulating for someone who’s not used to women… no, I’m no longer a virgin, but still, as a man who’s not accustomed to women, her outfit is overwhelming.
“Well, it’s not that it’s strange…”
“Is that so? It’s not like it doesn’t suit me?”
“Y-yeah, I think it suits you.”
How much credibility can my response have, given how vaguely I said it while facing the wall?
However, I’m not lying when I say it suits her.
“So, what’s going on, Fiona?”
“Yes, I thought I’d talk a little more with Chrono-san.”
“I see. Then, I have a few things I want to ask as well—hm!?”
As Fiona approached the bed, she didn’t stop and instead got even closer. Naturally, she got into bed.
The blanket lifted for a moment, and I felt a cold rush of air. The next moment, I was met with the warm, soft sensation of human skin. Fiona embraced me from behind as if she were leaning over me. I felt a shiver as her hands slithered up my back.
“Wait, Fiona, hold on, this is—”
“It’s fine, isn’t it? We’re already a couple, after all.”
Could it be that this is what’s called a night visit?
No, seriously, wait a moment. I did confess, but that was just a little while ago, and I’m not ready for any of this—
“I’m sorry, Chrono-san.”
Her somewhat sad apology interrupted my confused thoughts.
“Why are you apologizing?”
“That was a terrible confession, wasn’t it?”
If I want to avoid having this woman killed, I must date her.
Summarizing Fiona’s confession, that’s what it comes down to. Whether it was terrible or not is a given—it was definitely terrible. It was more of a threat than a confession. It was a criminal act.
“No, that’s not true. You’ve been holding it in until now, and you must have been desperate.”
“Yes… the thought of being rejected by Chrono-san was the scariest thing.”
She said something so outrageous. It’s clear that she didn’t say it lightly. That much even I, who am somewhat dense, can understand.
“That’s why I wanted you to accept me, even if it was a lie.”
“It’s not a lie. If I wanted, I could have forcefully rejected you, Fiona.”
In the lounge of the dormitory, we were in close proximity. In that condition, I had the advantage in a fight over Fiona, who is a mage, as a berserker. Even without weapons, it would have been possible to forcibly restrain her.
“However, I never thought of doing that, even a little. You might think I’m a tremendous fool, but honestly, I was happy when you confessed to me. To think that such a cute girl would say she likes me.”
“Th-that’s… but I—”
“I did struggle when I was told to choose. But to be able to weigh Lily and Fiona against each other is the most luxurious choice in the world. I’m sure I wouldn’t regret either choice. So, even now, I have no regrets. I chose the best woman.”
Fiona’s arms entwined around me tightened even more.
How would she take my words? She might think I’m saying what I find convenient, or perhaps she decided from the start that I was lying and isn’t even concerned about it.
It’s frightening to reveal my feelings. But now, I can’t stop myself.
“What I did to Sariel isn’t something that can be forgiven. Lily didn’t forgive me. But, Fiona… you’re the only one who told me you would forgive such a person.”
Even if I know those are just sweet words.
“Thank you for forgiving me.”
That must have been what I truly sought from the bottom of my heart.
Carrying the Sariel I couldn’t kill, the days I spent in the pioneering village were all lies. In the end, I couldn’t find the answer by myself. What to do about Sariel, what I want to do. More than anything, what should I do to atone for not being able to kill Sariel myself?
That answer was incredibly simple.
I just wanted to be forgiven.
“I love you, Fiona.”
Unexpectedly, her body pulled away.
But she quickly returned. Just as she had been on my back, this time she was on my stomach.
Fiona came down on top of me. It was with such force that the blanket almost flew off the bed. It felt slightly chilly.
“Mmm――”
A third kiss. No, I couldn’t even tell you how many times it had been. Like a bird pecking, Fiona showered me with kisses repeatedly.
With the indescribable softness of her lips pressed firmly against mine, my heart began to race. The sensation felt as if consciousness was about to fade, or rather, like I was being overtaken solely by human instincts. And above all, I know that that control is the most pleasurable thing.
Ah, that’s right. It felt like this when I completely gave up and kissed Sariel myself.
My lips seemed to have grown dissatisfied with just that sensation and were attempting to accept a slick little intruder.
From the slightly parted gap of my mouth, Fiona’s tongue slipped in. Our mouths weren’t particularly wide, and soon, the tips of our tongues touched.
“Mmm, mmm――Wait, Fiona!”
I had to hold her shoulder quite firmly to stop.
“What is it…?”
Her face was faintly flushed, as if she were under a fever. Even without words, I could distinctly feel the intensity of her emotions.
“Could you not do this any more… tonight?”
“…Isn’t my body alluring enough?”
“Until I settle things with Lily, I can’t take you.”
What weight does such an action have? At the very least, I doubt I can express a reason convincing enough to satisfy Fiona.
However, right now, I strongly feel that I cannot simply succumb to the moment and engage with her.
“I’m sorry, Fiona. This may just be my selfishness…”
“…It’s alright.”
After a brief pause, Fiona confirmed that.
“However, I can’t wait too long.”
“Ah, next time, I’ll be the one to invite you for sure.”
I can’t imagine enduring for too long, especially seeing Fiona in such a revealing outfit. If I think that such a beautiful girl is seeking me out… I want to commend my reason for managing to interrupt the act now.
“Is that so? Then, I think I could wait just a little longer.”
With a sultry sigh, Fiona removed herself from my body. I felt a sense of loss at the pleasant weight disappearing.
Fiona then got out of bed. She picked up the lamp she had left by the pillow. It seemed she intended to return to her room tonight.
“Um, Chrono-san.”
But Fiona couldn’t take that step towards exiting.
Of course. I was holding her wrist, keeping her from leaving.
“I’m sorry, but could you sleep with me tonight?”
“That’s cruel, Chrono-san. This is just teasing, isn’t it?”
I found myself becoming embarrassed after making such a request.
“Please, let me be a little spoiled.”
This much should be okay.
“Alright. After all, I am—”
Because she is my girlfriend.