An Uninvited Guest
The morning sun lifted its head above the horizon.
The night had passed, and dawn had broken into day.
I drank in the sight of a new day beginning with both eyes.
Pretty, isn't it?
Sipping a piping hot cup of cocoa, I let myself sink into the moment. I'd spent a feverish night with Yupi and lain back down in bed, but sleep wouldn't take me deep. I'd dozed fitfully and woken before long, and with nothing pressing to do, I was killing time like this.
Peaceful. Can't complain about that.
So this is what they mean by the afterglow of sex?
A quiet morning, drifting toward a quiet peace of mind.
You're loud.
And there he was, our dear Helper, shattering the peaceful atmosphere. He'd been ranting away in the chat window ever since I woke up.
"Come on, can it for a bit. You got no interest in quietly enjoying the scenery?"
And I'm hardly one to talk about being normal.
Between the Writer and this guy, there wasn't a single sane mind in the chat window. About the only saving grace was that he was a fellow man, so we got each other. He occasionally gave genuinely useful advice, and more than anything, it was thanks to him that I'd gotten things off the ground with Yupi in the first place. Since then I'd claimed Marin, Eva, and plenty of others, so I'd been magnanimous enough to overlook his noise.
"Sex is great and all, but you're just watching from the sidelines anyway, aren't you? Where's the fun in that?"
Doing it yourself and jerking off to a video were worlds apart. You got to know a person through the meeting of hearts, then deepened the foreplay through the meeting of bodies—kisses, caresses, all of it—until at last you pressed yourself against someone no other living soul had ever seen, and the two of you tumbled into a scene of bliss and pleasure together. My achievement involved a staggering amount of effort compared to scrolling for porn online, but it was stimulating enough that once you'd had a taste, there was no crawling back out.
Which was exactly why I couldn't understand that man. If I had his time, I'd groom myself up and go out and actually sleep with women instead of spectating.
"That's genuinely sad."
"I've been wondering for a while now—where exactly do you two live?"
The Divine Realm. I'd heard of it—read about it in the Writer's setting notes, in fact. Long, long ago, the God King was born there, or so the lore went. It was the destination that Proto and the rest of the Celestial Clan ultimately yearned to reach. The act of ascending to the Divine Realm—they'd called it Apotheosis, hadn't they?
"So you and the Writer are both residents of that place, then?"
"Then why don't the two of you just meet up and have yourselves a wild time?"
"Time frames?"
He plastered a shifty-eyed emoji onto the chat window and dodged the question. Plenty still puzzled me, but he'd more or less told me everything I'd wanted to know, so I let it go without pressing further.
"Got it. I'll take your word up to there. Mind if I ask one more thing?"
"The Writer hasn't logged into the chat window in a while. Is she not coming on anymore? I haven't seen hide nor hair of her lately."
She was the shameless wretch who'd dumped me into this world by force—but even so, she'd looked out for my comfort and lent me a hand whenever I needed it. We'd built up a fair amount of goodwill. Besides, the whole reason she was doing this was to carve a path toward the true ending, and she'd promised to grant my wish as payment. If she stiffed me on that, we'd have a problem. So like a creditor hounding a deadbeat debtor, I'd been hoping to get back in touch with her.
"And what condition would that be?"
"What a marvelously innovative premise."
If I had to pick one, would Arlan be the likelier bet? Compared to Chloe, you could say I was on much closer terms with her. Not that I planned to force the issue without a pressing reason.
"Event?"
"Ah. So that's how it plays out?"
Two Divine Relics symbolized the Citrine family: Endless Waves and Wrathful Heavenly Thunder. With the two of them coming together, a sparks-flying contest was set to begin between the two young ladies, Yupi and Ter, over who would claim the position of family head.
In the original story, things kicked off with Ter, riding high after claiming both relics, brazenly throwing down the gauntlet. Officially it was supposed to begin in earnest in their second year, but I'd accelerated the timeline, so it wouldn't be strange for it to erupt at any moment.
"Still, you think Ter will actually declare the succession battle?"
"I know that. It's just that things completely unrelated to what the Writer's been writing lately keep popping up, and it's throwing me off."
"I'll try to trust it."
I'd find out soon enough either way, so I brushed it off with a shrug and moved on.
Time passed, and the Academy's gates opened. Classes resumed after a long hiatus—in-person this time, not remote. There had been any number of incidents and accidents, but since they couldn't run remote classes forever, the schedule had apparently been adjusted. Thanks to that, I was forced to sit through lessons I had zero desire to attend.
"And with that, class is dismissed. Everyone, don't forget to review before our next session."
"Woooah! It's over!"
With Instructor Sylvia, homeroom teacher of Class A, delivering her closing remarks, I stretched my arms toward the ceiling. I'd actually looked forward to attending a real class after so long, but a lecture was, in the end, a lecture. Teaching me material I already knew, it was torture for anyone on the receiving end.
"Hey, get up already. We're going to the café."
Chloe seized my listlessly sprawled shoulder and shook it, rattling my head along with it.
"Can't I skip it today?"
"Nope. There's the next skills assessment coming up, and we need to get a head start on finals."
"Yes, yes, whatever you say."
I finally understood why the protagonist in creative works always trails after the diligent heroine like a lazy slug. She never shuts up. Damn that Chloe—bossing me around without so much as a single day of rest did not sit well with me. But I did need to see the others' faces, and with that thought, I dragged myself up out of my seat.
"Come on, let's hurry!"
"Hm?"
Strange, though—the Academy was unusually noisy today. Students were sprinting off in every direction as if some urgent matter had cropped up.
"What's got everyone running?"
"We'll find out when we get there."
"Wait—!"
I grabbed my things, rose from my seat, and followed the crowd. Chloe reached out to stop me, but I blew right past her before she could react.
"Hey, did you hear? Ter's picking another fight with one of the instructors!"
"Seriously? She got crushed that badly and still hasn't learned her lesson."
The battle for family headship. In the original story, Ter—armed with both Divine Relics—confronted Yupi directly, demanding justification for her claim as family head and declaring herself the rightful heir. With that as the trigger, the Citrine family began to move in earnest, and the debate over who was more fit to lead raged on.
Yupi, huh. She's already started.
I'd seen it coming, but I hadn't imagined she'd pick the fight the instant she got her hands on the relic. You had to hand it to her tenacity.
BOOM!
A savage wave surged and roiled as if to swallow everything whole. Blue mana blanketed the space, cresting and pushing everything around it aside.
Crack!
As if to answer it, golden lightning flared. The jagged, crackling line of electric light walled off the water, cutting it off head-on. The rolling blue swell, brimming with ferocious momentum, flashed into steam and evaporated in an instant.
"So this is a Divine Relic... Endless Waves..."
Yupi drove her spear's shaft into the ground and squared off against Ter. A Guardian who stood at the vanguard felling monsters with her own two hands—a fitting presence for the unyielding frontline commander—her mere stance radiated overwhelming pressure.
"With this, I've proven I have the right too. Isn't that right?"
Ter stood proudly before her, facing her head-on. It felt like only yesterday she'd been cowering, beaten half to death and stripped of her relic. But now that she had something new, her confidence had come roaring back.
"I, Ter Citrine, hereby declare the battle for family headship against the current head, Yupi Citrine!"
Her declaration rang out across the entire Academy. There was no walking it back now. Everything the family held—lost, or seized. When the fight that separated victor from vanquished was over, only the result would remain.
Up to this point, everything had gone exactly as the Writer had written it. That was why I'd been watching the two of them with a calm, untroubled expression.
"Pardon the interruption."
And then—an unforeseen variable barged its way in.
"My greetings to Yupi Citrine, current head of the Citrine family."
"And who might you be?"
"I am Yuri—a servant in Lady Ter Citrine's service, and the right hand of the faction that supports her."
A silver-haired woman who seemed to appear from nowhere bowed with perfect courtesy. The restraint of her movements, the elegance of her bearing—they stole my gaze before I could help it.
"Now that Lady Ter has declared the battle for family headship, I have come to pay my respects to the opposing side in advance. A pleasure to meet you."
I drew in a sharp breath. At the appearance of someone who should never, under any circumstances, have shown up here, my thoughts flatlined for an instant.
The Celestial Clan!
A successor of a Divine Relic, just like Diana. That hostile presence had stepped forward to back Ter.