A Simple Answer, and Sweets That Were Not Hers
“Whew...”
The trouble I'd been pouring out was whether or not I should accept Finn's request. Naturally, I left out the parts I wasn't supposed to talk about.
Having heard my dilemma, Meteria listened intently and seriously, then began to deliberate.
“...What do you think?”
I felt a little guilty for being a bother, but having come this far, I did want to hear someone else's opinion. What would Meteria say, I wondered...
“Hmm, let's see...”
She rested her chin on her hand, thought for a moment, and then—
“Frankly? You're overthinking it.”
“Huh?”
“You're a man—be decisive! Ah, of course, I'm not saying thinking things through is *bad*!”
A bit harsh of a remark, but there was no real malice in it.
“I don't even know the details of your situation, so maybe it's irresponsible of me to say this. But if you're asking for my opinion, I think the very fact that you're agonizing over it so much is what's wrong.”
“Just do what you want to do, as much as you want to do it. I don't know what circumstances you're dealing with, Vesta-kun, but you don't have to make it so complicated.”
Truly an irresponsible piece of advice. *Do what you want*—as if I didn't already know that. It was precisely because I couldn't that I was troubled in the first place.
And yet, strangely enough, hearing it actually made some of the complexity melt away. She was such an easygoing person that I seemed to have caught her carefree spirit myself.
Then again, I *have* been overthinking it.
The thought that the future might change had made me move so stiffly, so cautiously. Maybe she was right, and it would be better for me to act a little more freely, with a lighter heart.
“...Thank you. That helped.”
“Oh no, no. If it helped you, then I'm happy too.”
Meteria smiled warmly as she said it.
...What a strange person she was. The more I looked at her, the more true it became.
A woman with an indescribable sense of ease about her. If I had to put a name to it, she carried something like... something benevolent, like Ouranos himself.
“Did that help lighten the burden a little?”
“Thanks to you.”
“Complicated thoughts call for something sweet! I'll bring out the snacks I've been saving, so eat up and re-energize.”
“Ah... yes...”
Sweets aside... well, she was offering, and I couldn't very well say no.
...Hm? Snacks? For some reason, it felt like I was forgetting something...?
“Let's see, it's in here... eh?”
As I watched her rummage through the cupboard, it hit me.
That's right. When Grandfather visited before, I had nothing to serve him, so I put out the snacks that had been kept here.
That day had been so overwhelming that I'd completely forgotten to restock. To think I'd make such a blunder...
“I'm sorry. We had a guest come by, and I ended up serving them, so...”
“...”
“I'll buy more to replace them, so for now...”
“...But.”
“Eh...?”
“Those were my stash...”
“Um...”
“Do you have any idea how hard those were to get...? I held back, I rationed them out, one by one, savoring them...”
Wh-what is this? This is terrifying.
Something black seemed to be billowing off of Meteria's back in waves. The atmosphere had shifted, somehow...
“H-huh?!”
Ocean-blue eyes fixed themselves on me. A fear unlike anything I'd ever felt began to crawl over my whole body.
Th-this was... terror like the expression Ouranos wears when I've been chased through the pleasure district all day and come home—concentrated two hundred times over...!
“How dare you...”
“W-wait a moment. Please don't come any closer—”
“HOW DARE YOU TOUCH MY SWEETS!!”
“GYAAAH?!”
“I'm sorry... I'm so sorryyy...”
“Truly... I will never forgive you again if you do this.”
Having barely earned her forgiveness, I lowered the arms I'd been holding up.
Whew. What a harrowing time that had been. It's hard to put into words—an utterly terrifying, agonizing stretch of time.
Unlike Alfia or Lady Hera, there was nothing sharp-edged about it, but there was something I simply couldn't resist, something that wrapped itself around me and squeezed.
It's like being scolded by your parents—I've never actually experienced that, but I imagine it feels something like that. Anyway, it was quite the novel experience.
Only after appeasing her wrath and promising to prepare a fresh batch of snacks did I manage to earn my pardon.
“Oh my, look at the time already...”
At some point, the sky had been dyed a deep crimson with the sunset. If I didn't head back soon, people would start worrying.
“I should be getting back for today...”
“I'll be sure to have snacks ready, so don't worry.”
“Who's worried?!”
Perhaps she was a little embarrassed at having scolded a thirty-year-old man over snacks, because Meteria shouted it with a red face.
That was a hard claim to square with the sheer resentment she'd shown toward the missing treats. Judging by her momentum alone, she looked ready to chew out Lady Hera herself.
“Can you make it back on your own? If you're tired, I'll walk you.”
“Eh...? I have a boyfriend, so such an overt pass is a little...”
“Cut the crap.”
“Yes, ma'am.”
Meteria said it with a soft chuckle. She really was a good-natured person, through and through.
“Then, if I may impose on you...”
“Of course.”
Having made my preparations to return, I set off for the Hera Familia home.
Come to think of it, where did the Empress disappear to?
If she were around, I wouldn't have needed Meteria to see me off in the first place. Busy with her duties as captain, I supposed?
Turning back the clock a little—to just after Meteria had been escorted down to the underground.
“I'm back, you old hag.”
“Who are you calling an old hag, you spinster.”
The Hera Familia home.
Having finished her errand, the Empress had come to Hera's private quarters to give her report.
“Are you sure about this? Leaving Meteria behind all alone?”
It hadn't been by choice that the Empress had left Meteria behind. She cared for her members in her own way, and she had been willing to stay by her side to the very end—but the god's orders had forced her to return, no matter how she felt about it.
“Alone? There was another one there with her, wasn't there.”
“Isn't that even more of a problem...?”
The Empress couldn't hide her bewilderment at Hera's reaction.
Hera, who doted on Meteria as much as Alfia did—leaving her alone with a stranger who had appeared out of nowhere? She'd obeyed because it was an order, but why on earth would she take such a risk?
“And here I remember you cursing that little cutie up one side and down the other.”
“When did I ever do that? Never happened.”
“Old hag, you've finally gone senile... hm?”
Just as she was about to fire off more barbs, the Empress felt a strange sense of wrongness and scanned the room.
“This room... was it ever this clean?”
It wasn't as if Hera normally made a mess of things, but right now the room was so immaculate that not a single speck of dust could be found.
“I've always been tidy.”
“No, no, this is beyond tidy.”
Every object in the room had been squared away with precision, and a faint fragrance suffused the air, as if incense had been burned.
She couldn't identify the scent, but even by the judgment of the Empress, who had a taste for luxury, it was a fine one. Judging by the aroma alone, it must have cost a considerable sum. But why, all of a sudden...
“What... since when does cleaning a room need a reason?”
“Well, fair enough, but...”
She was a hysterical woman, certainly, but that didn't make her dirty.
If anything, it was precisely because of her temperament that the occasional fit of revulsion toward filth would send her into these cleaning frenzies—days when the room would end up spotless like this weren't unheard of.
But the Empress's instincts told her otherwise. This wasn't one of those times.
“...And those snacks?”
Snacks, piled high against one wall of the room.
A colorful array of confections and drinks, laid out as if to say “I didn't know what you'd like, so I prepared everything.” At the sight of it, the Empress couldn't hold her tongue.
The snacks themselves weren't the problem. In an all-female Familia, nothing reigned more popular than sweets. Hysterical goddess and spawn alike—women were women, after all. If anything, it was precisely those high-strung types who were utterly helpless against anything sweet.
Hera liked sweets too, of course. But she'd never been the type to stockpile them like this... had she?
“...It's just a feeling I have.”
“...”
Something felt profoundly off, but no words came to mind, and a nagging frustration settled over the Empress.
This was a scene from before Meteria and Vesta came to the Hera Familia home.