195. The today that was yesterday.
195. The today that was yesterday.
It was obvious, really,
"Haaah... today was fun too!"
"I'm dying heeere....."
Hestia's virginity was still intact.
Just in case this regression might be the one and only, she had to be careful.
"'Tomorrow' will probably be just like 'today' too...."
Even so, there could always be an exception.
In the first place, Hestia had nothing to lose, so she came out to the club and shook her hips with all her might.
"Our Tia is like that... Aah... my head...!"
Watching from the side, Theia Mama seemed to be in agony from this hidden side of her daughter, but such trivial things meant nothing to Hestia, who was simply enjoying the day.
"Mom. Don't just stand there, come out on the floor with me, will you?"
No, she was actually trying to recruit Theia Mama instead.
"At this age, what are you..."
"That's exactly why you should! Doing this at your age!"
"Huh?! Wait....Hestia!"
Mama had tried to step back and refuse, but Hestia grabbed her.
What followed was the bold, unreserved skinship unique to women, and the gazes of the surrounding people began to naturally focus on them.
'Whoa... look over there, that black dude's coming out.'
At the slightest opening, Hestia looked ready to pour her a drink and drag her to the secret VIP room.
"Keuheum!"
"Huh? Aah, right. I still had something to give the Hero, didn't I?"
I cleared my throat lightly, giving Hestia a pointed look.
She then set down the Mama she had embraced and approached me.
She picked up a glass sitting nearby, drank about half, and then, just like before, handed it toward me.
"Today, I mixed it a little stronger as a special treat!"
"......Um..."
It had definitely been in her mouth.
Yet the amount of liquid in the glass hadn't changed at all.
She drank from it, but the volume stayed the same. That same situation I had seen once before.
"Must you give it to me in this exact way?"
I mean, you know.
Athena just did it with one gesture,
and Cronus just did it with a few casual gestures.
Even if I wasn't hoping for it to be that simple, did it really have to be this specific method...
I stared at the liquid, half alcohol and half some unknown bodily fluid, and asked Hestia. In response, she threw a question back at me.
"Hero, do you think giving a Blessing is an easy thing?"
"Huh? Well... that's..."
But they gave them out so incredibly easily.
To me, Blessings practically felt like game systems, so the only word that came out was "easy."
"It's only easy between people who've formed a 'connection.' You and I aren't in 'that kind of relationship,' are we?"
"What?"
"Think about it. Look, okay?"
With Cronus, there was a 'link' between a Main God and an 'Apostle.'
With Hera, there was a 'link' between a Main God and a 'Hero.'
With Athena, the link between a Main God and a 'Servant Demon' was connected through Chrono.
"And."
With Ur, a physical 'link' was connected.
"............"
"Your eyes are asking how I know. Wouldn't all the Main Gods in this field who are worth knowing, know?"
"You said you're living just for today, so are you just laying everything out in the open?"
"If the sins you committed today become null and void, it means you can sin all you want just for today!"
That sounds like something a god shouldn't be saying.
After that, she glossed over it by adding, 'And even without the regression, I can cover up this much anyway!', but she really was a woman with no thought for tomorrow.
'Whoa.'
Scary.
Scary in a different way than Cronus, Hera, or Athena.
When I looked at Hestia with startled eyes, she shrugged her shoulders and continued.
"In the first place, it's an act where a mere human dares to face a god. Wouldn't it be even more problematic if that process were easy?"
"............"
By that logic, I was...
"You mustn't think it's easy. Every single deed you, the Hero, have accomplished is something close to a 'miracle' for an ordinary person to pull off."
"......Grrrng."
Thinking about it that way, I guessed it did make some sense.
When I eventually looked at Hestia, asking what she was getting at, she answered with a beaming smile.
"It means there's still a distance between you and me."
We weren't close enough for her to grant a Blessing with just a few flicks of her fingers.
And that was why, she said, she had to use 'this kind of method' to pass on the Blessing.
".....Haah."
Ultimately, we circled back to the fact that I absolutely had to drink it.
I squeezed my eyes shut, tilted the glass, and drank. A hot, stuffy heat rose from my stomach as Hestia's Blessing was newly refreshed.
'Dizzy.'
The taste was nothing special.
Maybe she'd mixed it with vodka, but it was just disgustingly strong, hot, and sweet.
"Hero, do you hate receiving the Blessing like this every time?"
".........."
If asked whether I liked it or hated it, I was probably closer to hating it.
No matter what, drinking something that had been in and out of her mouth...
"If you really hate it, you could just receive it directly?"
"........Heek.."
She opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue.
I was almost drawn in, but still, it was a bit much.
"Or do you want to receive it with a simple gesture, like you do from the other Main Gods?"
"...No."
"Huh? I thought you'd say yes?"
"............."
Hestia had said it.
The distance between me and Hestia was too great for her to do it with a simple gesture.
So, what was the way to close that distance? Ur held the answer.
"....Hero, do you know the phrase 'irresponsible pleasure'?"
"I don't."
And I didn't want to know.
I felt like I shouldn't know....
"Wow, Hero. Look at my mom. Is that the vibe someone gives off at her age?"
"Huh? Uh... um..."
Whoa.
Sheeeesh...!
"She's my mom, but... seriously though. She's exactly the youngest's type."
"......Tch."
Swaying up top. Swaying down below.
She was just wearing a plain short-sleeved shirt, but because the frame filling it was so exceptional, the effect was different too.
There wasn't a single piece of clothing that was provocative, but the original chassis was so lewd that it made the clothes feel lewd too, if I had to put it that way.
"K-Kids...!"
"".........""
Theia Mama was reaching a hand toward us, sending out a rescue request.
And the fact that all the men on either side of her were trembling with blissful smiles on their faces—it was a sight that truly left me speechless in many ways.
"Hero. It might not be my place to say, but... if my mom had been loved just a little more, she might have become a fertility goddess."
"She wasn't one?"
"She was a goat beastman."
"Racism?"
"Technically, speciesism."
Apparently, pushing furries into the mainstream was a tough sell, or something like that.
As time ticked by, it was 10 minutes before midnight.
"It's almost 12 o'clock, isn't it?"
Hestia looked at me as if the time had come.
"Hero. You need to listen carefully to what I'm about to say, okay?"
"......Yes."
The mood shifted quite noticeably.
Hestia spoke.
"First. The Blessing I gave you. 'Freeze' it."
"...Is that possible?"
"'Time' is equal to everyone. Give it a try."
"As if that would ever wo— It does?"
I stopped the 'time' of the 'Blessing' Hestia had given me.
After recognizing Hestia's Blessing, I wished for it to stop, and that exact text simply froze into a grayish hue.
"Looks like it worked."
Then tomorrow—no, when 'today' came again, I was told to activate the 'Blessing' in front of her.
"The events of today are stored as memories inside that 'Blessing,' so I'll be able to understand the situation quickly."
"Oh...."
Hestia's own personal anti-regression project.
However, since she herself might deny it, no matter what.
"If you think I'm doubting you, say this in front of me."
".....Excuse me?"
A single sentence that made me doubt my ears.
"Can I ask that of you?"
"No, wait—"
Just as I was about to ask what the hell kind of nonsense that was.
12 o'clock sharp. The end of the day.
At the same moment, the world began to turn back.
*******************
"—old... on..... a sec....."
Morning.
A late morning with piercing sunlight.
I slowly got up from my spot and looked to the side.
"............."
Chocolates. A piece of paper with a phone number written on it.
I unlocked my phone and checked the date.
"....Tch."
I regressed.
That much was certain.
"But they could at least give me time to sleep...."
However, my condition was at its absolute worst.
I had just been drinking heavily a moment ago and had only just woken up; there was no way I'd be normal.
My body itself had no accumulated fatigue, but my mind was laden with exhaustion, if I had to describe it.
"Ugh... euugh...."
Staggering, I rose from my spot and opened the refrigerator door.
I grabbed a bottle of water, uncapped it, and poured it straight into my mouth.
"Haaaaa... I think I'm going to live."
My mind was waking up, just a little.
I was still somewhat tired, but it wasn't unbearable.
'Now then.'
I picked up the note. I looked at the phone number and made the call.
[Hello?]
Unlike yesterday—no, unlike the 'today that was yesterday,' her voice was a little calmer.
"I've returned."
[....The place we promised last time.]
This time, without wandering around, I went straight to the cafe.
And then.
"....Where’s Hestia...?"
"Huh? Should I have called Tia too?"
Theia Mama had come alone.
Thinking about it, from Mama's point of view, there was no reason for her to bring Hestia.
In the first place, during the previous loop, Hestia had just guessed the situation on her own and followed behind Mama.
"Please call her too."
"I'll be sure to bring her next time."
It seemed like it was going smoothly, but then it got a little derailed again.
...
..
.
About 20 minutes later.
"Hello, Chrono?"
"...Hestia?"
Hestia entered the cafe.
She soon looked back and forth between me and Theia Mama, then grabbed Mama's hand and pulled her up.
"Mom, go outside for a bit."
"Tia, wait—! Tia??!"
"....Hmm??"
Hestia forced her outside.
I couldn't even react properly to the sudden situation and just watched blankly as Hestia approached me and spoke.
"Chrono, no matter how much of a Hero you are, there are 'lines' you both need to observe."
"Uh...."
Was it just my imagination? Her eyes were glaring at me with outright hostility.
'...Why?'
Weren’t Hestia and I on pretty good terms?
What reason could she have for suddenly glaring at me so fiercely...?
"...Ah!"
There was a reason.
There was, indeed, a reason to glare at me.
"Don't tell me... you think I approached Theia—uh, Auntie? Miss? Anyway, Ms. Theia—just to see you, Hestia?"
"..........."
Silence. Soon, an expression of affirmation.
In fairness, the Hestia of 'this loop' didn't know what kind of relationship I had with Theia Mama.
"That's, so, that's why—"
I explained everything that had happened so far to Hestia.
The feast during the 1st loop. Rhea's statement. The sudden start of the regression story.
"...Chrono. You know what?"
Hestia, who had listened to my explanation to the very end, spoke to me again.
"Just yesterday, the outskirts of our city, Red Glass Alley, was completely destroyed, they say."
And all the witness testimonies from the people there claimed they had been 'hypnotized.'
"....Hestia."
"If you're planning on trying to clumsily hypnotize me, you'd better not. You see, I didn't earn my spot as a Main God just by throwing stones."
"............"
She was deeply and firmly misunderstanding the situation.
I released the 'pause' on 'Hestia's Blessing,' which I had kept within me as my sort of proof.
"!, That's....."
"It's the Blessing you gave me yesterday, Hestia. On the 'today that was yesterday.'"
"............"
Her eyes still showed she couldn't quite believe it.
'...She's really something.'
If it went this far, I almost had to be impressed.
Maybe I should be applauding the wisdom of the Hestia from the 'today that was yesterday.'
"To think I'd actually end up using what I thought was complete bullshit...."
Did I have to say it?
Even so, I probably had to.
Half-resigned, I spoke to Hestia.
"Where exactly did you get the idea of wanting to get pregnant again before the placenta has even detached after giving birth?"
".....Hweh?"
When I first heard this, I seriously thought she was insane.